Canadian PC Market Closes the Year on a High Note, According to IDC

January 30, 2004

TORONTO, Ontario, January 30, 2004 – The Canadian PC market repeated its double-digit third quarter performance in the fourth quarter. According to preliminary figures released by IDC’s Canadian Quarterly PC Tracker, PC shipments grew 15.2% to 950,500 units from the same period a year ago. Shipments of commercial-branded PCs rose 7.7%, while consumer-branded PCs surged 24.4% from the previous year. For the year, the PC market grew 8.3% to 3.3 million units, representing the first full year of growth since 2000.

“While the third quarter was largely driven by Ontario’s double cohort phenomenon and some early refresh activity, the fourth quarter results reinforced the latter driver as signs of commercial and consumer refreshes sprang to life,” said Eddie Chan, research analyst for IDC’s Mobile/Personal Computing & Technology programs. “PC demand amongst SMBs continues to support the overall commercial market; however, enterprise demand is emerging especially with notebooks on the wireless mobility theme.” In the consumer market, the holiday season did not disappoint with record sales of consumer-branded PCs. “The digital home & lifestyle theme is becoming more prevalent with the increasing adoption of convergent PC technologies and CE platforms. Products such as Media Center PCs, LCD TVs, DVRs, digital cameras, camcorders, mp3 players, DVD burners, and home networking gear, are all contributing to consumer awareness of the digital revolution. These peripheral purchases are leading consumers to create, edit, share, and store their digital assets sparking a ‘greater system requirements & storage’ effect and helping fuel PC upgrades and refreshes,” added Chan.

The total Canadian desktop market rose 12% year over year in the fourth quarter, boosted by the 23% growth in consumer-branded shipments. Notebook shipments soared 26.7% from a year ago as both consumer and commercial segments continued to experience strong demand. The x86 server market posted another outstanding quarter with year-over-year growth of 17.7%. On an annual basis, notebooks led the resurgence in the Canadian PC market with 18.1% growth, followed by x86 servers at 14.9% and desktops at 5.3%.

Vendor Results

For the fourth quarter, Dell and HP were in a statistical tie in the Canadian PC market with 20.8% and 20.5% share, respectively. However, for the year Dell emerged as the market leader with 21.9% share. Similarly, HP and Toshiba were in a virtual tie for first place in the notebook PC market, both in the fourth quarter and for the year.

Dell’s position in the overall PC market in the fourth quarter was largely attributed to the strength of its desktop volumes where the company led with 20.5% share. In addition, Dell continued to make inroads on notebook PC sales, outperforming the market by over 18 points. For the year, Dell was no. 1 in desktops and in the total PC market, doubling the average annual growth rate with unit sales up 16.6% from a year ago.

HP had another exceptional quarter, building on its momentum from the third quarter. The company led the x86 server market with 32.3% share and captured 21.3% share in the notebook market, where it posted year-over-year growth of 31.7%. HP’s “Radically Simple, Better Together” message, announced during last summer’s “Big Bang 2” product launch, is resonating with consumers. The company has been able to leverage its strong Canadian retail presence and broad product portfolio to offer a more seamless computing and entertainment experience. For the year, HP was no. 1 in the x86 server market.

IBM came in with 12.6% share of the Canadian PC market as desktops bolstered the company’s bottom line. The company impressively outperformed the commercial-branded desktop market by 12 points and was able to recapture top spot in the commercial-branded notebook market in the fourth quarter as enterprise demand picked up. IBM also bounced back in x86 servers from the third quarter as shipments were ahead of the market by 12.5 points.

Toshiba came in with 21% share of the notebook PC market in the fourth quarter. While only three tenths of a percentage point separated Toshiba and HP in the overall notebook market, shipments of the company’s Satellite products remained ahead of its nearest rival by over 8 points in share in the consumer-branded notebook market. On its commercial-branded products, Toshiba posted growth of 12.2% in the same quarter from a year ago.

Apple rounded out the top five with 3.1% share in the Canadian PC market, outperforming the market with year-on-year growth of 17.3%. Although desktops were down 2.9% from a year ago, the company’s portables continued to garner interest and reception by new users as well as its traditional loyal following, helping it achieve three straight quarters of sequential growth. PowerBooks rose an impressive 154% from a year ago and for the first time, shipments exceeded iBooks signaling a willingness of consumers to upgrade hardware and software performance with the launch of Mac OS X Panther.

IDC’s Canadian Quarterly PC Tracker provides a view of the key market trends and ongoing performance of the leading PC vendors operating in Canada. The program tracks the Canadian PC marketplace by vendor, form factor, brand, customer segment, distribution channel, processor class, price band, and installed base. In addition to historical analysis, research includes quarterly forecasts by form factor, customer segment, and distribution channel, supplemented with qualitative analysis.

For more information or to subscribe to IDC’s Canadian Quarterly PC Tracker program, please contact Krista Elkin at 416-673-2246 or kelkin@idccanada.com.

All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Contact

Krista Elkin, Customer Service Representative
416-673-2246
kelkin@idccanada.com

Eddie Chan, Research Analyst, Mobile/Personal Computing & Technology
416-673-2254
echan@idccanada.com