(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Taiwan's PC Market to Grow to 1 Million Units
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October 12, 1998 (TAIPEI) -- Taiwan's domestic personal computer market
will likely top 1 million units this year, according to the Market Intelligence
Center (MIC) of Taiwan's Institute for Information Industry (III).
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The PC market reached 453,000 units in the first half of 1998, a growth
of 23.4 percent over the 367,000 units in the first half of 1997, though
the growth rate itself was lower than the 28.3 percent of the same period
of 1997,
In terms of Taiwan's overall economy in the first half of 1998, statistics
from the Auditing Department of the Taiwan Government (Executive Yuan)
indicate that domestic private investment grew by 14.1 percent and private
consumer spending grew by 7.7 percent, while the wholesale index fell
by 0.7 percent and the consumer price index rose by only 1.1 percent.
This shows that the Asian financial crisis has not produced any significant
negative effects on purchasing power in Taiwan's private sector, and
as a result, the domestic PC market was still able to post growth in
the first half of the year.
From the perspective of market environment, consumer demand in the first
half of 1998 in the domestic PC market has been affected both positively
and negatively.
On the negative side, the low-priced computer trend and the generational
replacement of processors has created a wait-and-see attitude among
consumers.
On the positive side, declining computer prices have stimulated consumer
spending in the market. Thus, although the domestic PC market has recorded
growth, the growth rate is lower when compared to the same period last
year. That can be attributed primarily to the conflicting influences
mentioned above.
The second half of the year is expected to see better market performance
than the first. In terms of market cycles, summer vacation and Taiwan's
"IT Month" fall within the second half of the year, so it should be
a very active business period in the domestic IT market.
In addition, the generational replacement of processors that has created
a furor since the beginning of the year has for the most part reached
its conclusion. That should work to dispel some consumers' expectations
that computer prices will fall lower, and boost consumer spending in
the market.
The release of Windows 98 on schedule has also been beneficial to company
sales and manufacturing by spurring PC sales. For all of these aforementioned
reasons, MIC/III predicts that Taiwan's domestic PC market scale will
reach 680,000 units in the second half of 1998, a growth of approximately
33 percent over the second half of 1997. The market for the entire year
is forecast to break through the 1-million-unit mark.
Chart: Growth of Taiwan PC market
* Forecast
Source: MIC/III, ITIS, August 1998
(Nikkei BP Online)
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