{"id":546587,"date":"2005-07-21T23:20:40","date_gmt":"2005-07-21T23:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/546587-sa-lapping-up-pcs-and-notebooks.html"},"modified":"2005-07-21T23:20:40","modified_gmt":"2005-07-21T23:20:40","slug":"sa-lapping-up-pcs-and-notebooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/546587-sa-lapping-up-pcs-and-notebooks.html","title":{"rendered":"SA lapping up PCs and notebooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

International research house Gartner says that worldwide PC shipments increased by 14,8%, or 48,9-m units in the three months to June 2005 when compared with the same period in 2004, exceeding projections by two percentage points.<\/p>\n

PC and notebook retailers say increases in South Africa over the same period outstrip the global average. <\/p>\n

David Hirsch, the merchandise executive at Incredible Connection\u2019s parent Connection Group, says sales of notebooks and PCs are \u201cup by almost 50%\u201d when compared with the second quarter of 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen a lot of growth for more than a year now,\u201d says Hirsch. He says this has been driven by price deflation in hardware owing to a stronger currency (fewer rands are needed to buy a dollar than two years ago). He also notes that there is more disposable income in the market. <\/p>\n

Grant Pattison, the deputy CEO of JSE-listed Massmart, which includes household names like Game, Makro and Dion\u2019s, says unit growth has been \u201cgreater than 20%\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe number one reason is the ability to afford a computer. While the number of units sold has increased substantially, we have seen deflation of greater than 10%. You can now buy a whole computer set, including a printer, for under R4 000. Also, consumers have had a good year in light of lower interest rates,\u201d says Pattison.<\/p>\n

Both Hirsch and Pattison say notebooks are flying off the shelves faster than their desktop-bound counterparts. Says Pattison: \u201cLaptop prices have come down significantly, and with the difference in price having reduced, more people \u2013 especially small business owners \u2013 are opting for mobility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top PC brands in South Africa are Hewlett-Packard, Mecer (each with 20% market share, according to technology analyst Irnest Kaplan) Proline, Dell, and Sahara. <\/p>\n

JSE-listed Mustek is the custodian of the HP and Mecer brands in South Africa, while another listed company, Pinnacle, is home of the locally assembled Proline brand. For the year to end-June, Pinnacle was the second-best performer in the technology sector in terms of share price, up 92% from 52c to 96c.<\/p>\n

Mustek has put in a more subdued showing, up 3,7% over the period from R9,74 to R10,10. <\/p>\n

Globally, Dell is the biggest shipper of PCs and notebooks, with 17,9% of global market share in the second quarter, or 8,7-m computers sold. Dell is followed by HP, with 14,6% market share, selling 7-m computers in the second quarter. <\/p>\n

Garter says the bulk of Dell\u2019s shipments are made in the USA, while HP\u2019s \u201cshipments growth rate exceeded the worldwide average, as the company performed well in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia\/Pacific regions\u201d. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With extra cash in their pockets and benefiting from a strong rand that has resulted in cheaper imports, South Africans are buying more personal computers and laptops (notebooks), in line with international trends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}