Features

PC Market in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh Poised for Growth: IDC

By Sandeep B E

The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for the client PC market from 2006-2010 for Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka will reach 19%, 22% and 11% respectively, said market intelligence and advisory services company, IDC. According to IDC, this will be largely driven by public sector purchases as well as the telecommunications and financial services sectors. The growth rates for 2005 were 19%, 13%, and 12% respectively.

“Despite some dampeners in 2005, such as risky peace talks and the after-effects of the tsunami, the PC market in Sri Lanka exhibited resiliency largely due to public sector and non-government organization purchases,” said IDC’s Andrew Wong. “In Pakistan, encouraging government-led policies and structural liberalization in the financial and telecommunications sectors helped to lift the PC market there. Bangladesh, on the other hand, was relatively unaffected by the influx of second-hand PCs, thus allowing the market to move ahead.”

"The CAGRs expected in these three countries make the rest of the APEJ market look dull in comparison," added IDC’s Bryan Ma. "…Pakistan's total market size could exceed the Singapore PC market in absolute terms as early as 2007."

Vendors should strengthen partnerships with local vendors or channels, especially when pursuing the government, education, and financial sectors, said IDC. Multinational vendors in Sri Lanka can partner with a local system integrator or value added-reseller to reduce costs and to get access to government contracts. This approach can be useful for vendors who wish to venture into this market in the midst of a rapidly changing environment.

In Pakistan, local branded PC vendors such as In-Box and Raffles grew in 2005 by banking on government and education projects. Multinational PC vendor HP grew 38.5% year-on-year in 2005 due to projects in the government, corporate, and education sectors. Similarly, HP overtook local player Daffodil in Bangladesh in 2005, where the government, education, finance, and agriculture sectors generated multiple small-scale projects throughout the year, IDC commented.