The Asian/Pacific PC market, excluding Japan, took another downturn in the second quarter, with 4.8% fewer PCs shipped than the same period in the previous year. Revenues dropped 35% compared to the second quarter of 1997, a larger percentage drop than the 29% fall recorded in the first quarter by the International Data Corp. IDC predicts that a Chinese clamp-down on the smuggling of PCs into the region, and another possible round of currency devaluation led by Japan, will help push the PC market to its lowest point in the third quarter this year. Most of the countries in the region shipped fewer PCs, bar India, New Zealand and the two largest markets in the region sales, China and Australia. Chinese shipments rose 28% to 1 million units, accounting for 39% of units sold in the whole region., with Australia accounting for 18.1% of total shipments. In the three worst hit countries, however, PC sales plummeted dramatically. In Indonesia shipments fell 90.2%, beating Thailand, where units sold fell 57.9%, and South Korea, where shipments dropped 40.3%. Compaq Computer Corp, with a 9.8% market share in the region, came in as the top-selling vendor, taking the title from IBM Corp. Although Compaq’s sales were boosted by the acquisition of Digital Equipment Corp, the combined organization still only shipped 250,000 units, down 11% from the same time last year. IBM’s shipments rose 2%, giving it an 8.4% share of the market. Hewlett-Packard Co’s shipments fell 3%, giving it a 5.5% share of the market. Chinese vendor Legend Group’s shipments rose 55%, giving it a 4.6% of the market, knocking Taiwanese group Acer TI into fifth place, with shipments down 31% to 4.4%.
