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Indirect PC Sales to Reach 80% by 2012|
- By CXOtoday Staff, Jun 02, 2009 1452 hrs IST
- Tags : Gartner, hardware, PC sales
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PC customer buying preferences will continue to push the PC market from direct to indirect during the next four years, forcing manufacturers to do a better job of customer segmentation and go-to-market strategies, according to Gartner.
Gartner says indirect sales will account for 80% of worldwide PC shipments by 2012. The indirect channel accounted for 66.6 % worldwide PC shipments in 2004, and it grew to account for 74.3 % of shipments in 2008 due to emerging market expansion.
The direct sales channel is still showing customer preference in certain segments such as enterprise, government, and education and some professional segments in mature markets, said Tiffani Bova, research VP at Gartner. However, strong consumer and SOHO market growth will lead to consistent growth for the retail channel.
Bova said telecom retailers will also begin to play a much more active role as a viable mobile PC channel, especially with mini-notebooks that are being bundled with remote access (3G contracts) in Western Europe, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and the U.S.
Gartner said that the burgeoning indirect channel will be driven by strong growth of products focused on the home and small and midsize (SMB) customers in both mature and emerging markets that show a preference for purchasing via indirect channels (retail and VAR). In mature markets, the direct channel comes second to retailer store fronts, with a sales volume of less than 10 % of the segment.
In mature markets, retailers with actual store fronts are also the dominant channel for consumer PCs, and Gartner predicts that future growth during the next four years will be fueled by steady home market growth in both mature and emerging markets.
SMBs prefer a combination of both the direct and indirect sales channel when purchasing PCs, although the smaller the business the more buyers prefer the indirect channel, including VAR and DMR (in the U.S.) channel, due to price, availability and pre- and post-sales support. In some countries, a face-to-face business relationship is critical to the sales process, which would greatly increase the cost of sales for manufacturers if they did not leverage third-party channels.
Related links:
Global PC Sales Grew 12%, Says Gartner
Samsung India Eyes 7% of Mobile PC Pie
Credit Crisis Impacts Global PC Market
Notebooks Will Dominate the PC Market in 2008-09
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