- Aggressively price reductions to clear inventory paired with notebook PC makers introducing low-priced NT$30,000 (US$909.4; US$1 = NT$32.9) models attracted demand from students and first-time buyers. Thus, despite the impact from SARS, the Taiwanese PC market saw 12% growth in 2003, reaching 2.3 million units.
Desktop PC, which account for 80% of the Taiwanese market, saw price reductions of over 15% on branded models to liquidate inventories, enabling shipment volume to grow approximately 9% between 2002 and 2003 to reach 1.8 million units. Domestic and foreign branded desktop PC volume reached 900,000 units in 2003, growing 17% from 770,000 units in 2002, taking in 40% of the Taiwanese PC market. The clone desktop PC market, eroded by price reductions on branded models, saw volume of 870,000 units in 2003, displaying little growth from 860,000 units in 2002; furthermore, market share was reduced to 38% from 45%.
With aggressive competition from Taiwanese branded notebook PC players bringing prices down and replacement demand pushed by Intel's Centrino, notebook PC volume grew 20% between 2002 and 2003, reaching 510,000 units. Notebook PC share of the Taiwanese PC market grew from 17% in 2001 to 19% in 2002, and reached 22% in 2003, indicative of the desktop PC replacement effect. Taiwanese brands such as ASUS and Acer, which have adopted highly competitive pricing strategies, have seized 45% of the Taiwanese notebook PC market.
With the economy gradually recovering, corporate PC procurement that had diminished since the global economic downturn in 2000 is bouncing back. Having gone through four to five years since the last peak in the replacement cycle, replacement procurement in the second half of 2004 is also expected to be a major driver PC shipments. The Taiwanese PC market is hence forecasted to reach a shipment scale of approximately 2.6 million units in 2004.