While the glamor, excitement and large profit margins remain with the software segment of the Pakistani IT market, some significant new trends that are taking place in the local hardware arena that should be highlighted. As previous IT Tazee polls have been showing, most consumers and even corporates are shifting from desktops to laptop computers in droves, as the price of the laptop falls further. IDC in 2007 reported something similar to our research into hardware market growth for 2007-2008.

The largest share of desktops and laptops are consumed by the SMEs, with about 50% of market share, (which is where the current battle for market share is being fought over) and the large enterprises consume about 25%. The remainder is divided between education, government, high end users,etc. Large enterprise is a more “settled” market opting for quality of support over price while the SMEs search for price over support. More on vendors’ growth:The major local contenders for desktops and laptops include:
Inbox, Acer, HP, Viper, Raffles, Lenovo, Dell and Toshiba.

Inbox ’s hardware division (the company also now has a strong and growing software+SI practice) still has a strong lead over others in the desktop arena, where it remains the number 1 desktop vendor in the country, with a market share of over 6%. Raffles, despite showing alot of growth has about half the market share at 3%.

Acer this year has come up to be the #1 laptop vendor with a whopping 150% growth, mostly due to it having the lowest prices, and it has captured major market share, at a high cost to HP, which is hurting everywhere except the printer business (no suprise there!). Toshiba seems to be up and coming as well, being a consumer favourite. Lenovo/IBM Thinkpads (what I use) have more or less kept the same market share, popular among power users and high end execs.

So there you have it..good growth overall, and mostly from foreign brands..that benefit from lower prices and lower operating costs. The desktop and mobile business is clearly cutthroat now with the contenders requiring to use benefits of scale to the maximum…

Btw : Physio therapists be ready to raise your rates, your clientele is about to skyrocket: Laptops are worse than desktops for posture and lead to back and neck problems…ask me I know

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