China managed to top the US and gain the biggest PC market share in the second quarter of this year, according to a report from IDC. One of the reasons: The rising popularity of smartphones and tablets in the western society.
This Year Numbers And Next Year Forecast
About 18.5 million computer units worth $11.9 has been shipped to China in the second quarter beating about 17.7 million computer units worth $11.7 that has been shipped to the US. While China is holding 22% of the global PC market share, the US holds 21% and all other countries holds about 57% together.
The forecast of IDC for the rest of this year however is that the US will eventually keep its first place, taking over back again, especially thanks to traditional strong sales during the holiday season at the end of this year. The forecast for next year is a different story: China, not only to be the largest PC market, but also will open a gap of 2.2% from the US.
Here are the full report numbers:
Analysis and Conclusions:
The reasons for this (surprising?) numbers are the combination of a faster growth in China compared to the US and the growing mobile industry in the western world being lead by the US. While many people in China are experiencing for the first time in their lives the technological era and buying computers, People in the US are much more excited about smartphones and tablets.
The data in this report emphasis two things:
1. We should raise our eyes to China and find ways to market our online business to this enormously gigantic market. It has a huge audience potential of people that are connecting the the web just in the last few years. The entrance of Bing through Baidu to the Chinese search market should assist us.
2. The mobile industry is gaining great popularity in the western world and more people prefer buying tablets or smartphones over laptop or even PCs. It is not a coincidence that companies are allocating there resources to this industry like Google buying Motorola Mobility and like the new mobile application of LinkedIn. Maybe we should do it too with our own work from home…