- After the traditional strong quarter in the end of 2003, sales in global PC consumer market cooled down. However, the replacement demand in the corporate market remained strong, preventing the Taiwanese desktop PC shipment volume from a major decline in the first quarter of 2004. Taiwanese desktop PC shipment volume in the first quarter dropped 9.7% sequentially to around 8.2 million units, but produced a significant year-on-year 27.3% gain. Shipment value reached approximately US$2.3 billion, an 18.9% increase from 1.9 billion year on year, but an 8.3% drop sequentially.
With the upswing in corporate demand during the first quarter, shipment performance in developed markets such as the US and Western Europe was especially strong, helping some makers to achieve volume levels on par with the fourth quarter of 2003. Although their performance provided some support to total industry shipment volume, the seasonal decline put downward pressure on shipment value.
However, a decrease in shipment share for low-price consumer models was accompanied by a price hike for components, keeping the price level for full systems from falling too dramatically. Combined with a growing shipment share of systems assembled at or beyond the barebone level, ASP (Average Selling Price) dropped only slightly from US$280 to US$275, preventing shipment value from being dragged down by shipment volume.
The first quarter also saw makers greater product diversification among desktop PC makers. Moving beyond the traditional tower form factors, players have been attempting to forge new market segments and demand. However, these makers' full system design competencies and R&D speed will be heavily challenged.
The IT industry will be heading into the traditional weak season in the second quarter, and the shipment volume of Taiwanese desktop PC industry will unavoidably be influenced. With rather stable shipment to the corporate market, shipment volume is anticipated to suffer only a small drop to approximately 7.9 million units, a strong performance for the traditionally weak season.
Over the course of 2004, aside from the persistent upgrade demand in the corporate market, the demand for desktop PC in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, Russia, Thailand, and India is growing rapidly, continuing to expand the scale of the global market. With this growth in demand and upcoming orders from brand name vendors, the shipment volume of Taiwanese makers is expected to reach a new peak of 34.3 million units in 2004, 15.6% growth from 2003.