China is the largest personal computer market in the Asia Pacific region according to analyst group International Data Corp, but it has warned that the market is a risk of falling foul to the economic problems sweeping the region. Some 806,000 PCs were shipped in China in the first quarter of 1998, which accounted for 35% of the overall market in the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, ahead of Australia at 390,000 shipments or 16.9% of the market and Korea with 281,000 at 12.2% of the market. Shipments of PCs in China increased 27% over shipments at the same time last year, but IDC fears this figure could drop substantially and offset severe price erosion if the Korean economic problems spread to China. Of the PC vendors selling their products in Asia, IBM Corp has the largest share with 7.5%, followed by Compaq Computer Corp at 6.3%, Hewlett-Packard Co with 5.9% and Acer Inc at 4.9%. Dell Computer Corp and Digital Equipment Corp share eighth place with 2.5% followed by Toshiba Corp in tenth place with a 2.4% share of the market.
