PC power balance tips towards Asia

"Historic shift" occurring in PC market as Asian OEMs continue to take share from US-based players

Seoul in South Korea (above) - home of Samsung - is among the hubs playing a part in the Far East PC revolution

A changing of the guard could be occurring in the PC market as the Asian OEMs continue to outgrow old-timers HP and Dell.

That is according to analyst iSuppli, which argues that the recent growth spurt of Acer, Asus, Samsung and Lenovo represents no less than an “historic shift” in the market.

Taiwan-based outfit Asustek led the way with 136 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2010, compared with a year earlier.

South Korea-based Samsung (84 per cent), China-based Lenovo (59 per cent) and Taiwan-based Acer (47.1 per cent) also all swelled shipments by more than double the total market.

Meanwhile, US stalwarts HP and Dell both fell fractionally short of the overall market’s growth rate of 23 per cent.

Seventh-placed Apple was the only US PC OEM to outperform the market with shipment growth of 32 per cent.

Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms at iSuppli, said: “The rise of Asian OEMs at the expense of long-time US leaders like HP and Dell represents a historic shift in the PC market.

“The rise of the Chinese consumer economy along with Asia’s increasing dominance in electronics manufacturing is spurring a fundamental shift in regional balance of power in the PC market.”

The 23 per cent spike represents the highest year-on-year quarterly growth ever recorded by iSuppli, which it attributed to the improved economy and the weakness of the previous year’s quarter. Desktop shipments grew for the first time in nearly two years, albeit by a meagre one per cent.