Laptop demand to sustain 2008 PC growth

An analyst firm has today predicted that sustained notebook and laptop market growth and expansion in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region will drive 14.4 per cent market growth in 2008.

"IDC expects 2008 to be another buoyant year for the EMEA PC market. Notebooks will remain a key driver across the region, with total PC sales in EMEA expected to cross the 100 million mark," said Karine Paoli, associate vice president for IDC's EMEA Personal Computing group.

Eszter Morvay, IDC EMEA PC group senior research analyst, added that laptop sales growth of 20 per cent would contribute to this growth: "In Western Europe, renewals, multi-equipment homes and further portable adoption will help maintain strong notebook momentum, with sales forecasted to grow by over 20 per cent in 2008."

However, Morvay added a word of caution beneath the market growth: "The sustained appeal of notebooks will continue to inhibit the recovery of the desktop market, expected to further contract overall at -2.6 per cent in 2008," she said.

As such, IDC predicts that notebook demand in the consumer and small to medium business (SMB) segments is expected to remain the key engine of growth in Western Europe, in particular around mobility.

In addition, this year's PC and notebook sales will also benefit from the current replacement cycle in the corporate space, which has started to take place in 2007 and due to peak throughout 2008, contributing to generate desktop volumes and add incremental growth in the notebook space, while IDC said client virtualisation will remain a major development direction and drive continued infrastructure investment.

IDC also said the EMEA PC market recorded an "outstanding year in 2007", as overall PC shipments in the region reached over 88 million units, an increase of 15.9 per cent year-on-year. And for the first time, laptops overtook desktops, with close to 21 million consumer notebooks shipped versus 16.5 million consumer desktops.

This year, it predicts increased price pressure on competitors in the PC market, and with large promotion deals, laptop prices are expected to drop a further 12 per cent this year. Weak desktop demand levels and bidding wars for corporate tenders will also continue to push desktop prices down.

Paoli added: "This year will mark further milestones in PC industry. Vendor competition is not expected to soften, particularly in the retail channel with the entry of Dell and Lenovo and Acer's consolidation with Gateway and Packard Bell, while the arrival of lower-cost mobile platforms is likely to add further pressure. While convergence expected to accelerate this year, PC and telcos players will offer new business model and routes-to-market."

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