Springboard Research reveals

IT Reporter

Bangladesh's PC and Server market registered a modest 5.9 per cent growth in Q1 2008 over the same quarter of the previous year with 56,665 PC/Server unit shipments recorded during the quarter, according to the latest data released by Springboard Research, a leading innovator in IT market research industry. Per data found in its Asia Emerging Countries Tracker update, Springboard stated that portables PCs notched up an impressive 104 per cent Year-To-Year (YTY) growth in Q1 2008, while sales of desktops and x86 servers registered negligible growth.

"The shift in demand to portable from desktops continued to adversely impact the desktop segment growth," said Manish Bahl, Research Manager at Springboard Research. "Lowered prices of notebooks helped increase their demand and in turn caused the segment to lead the market with a greater margin. Overall, the market growth was mainly on account of investments made by the government to promote IT sector and emerging opportunities from the country's growing telecom and banking sectors," Bahl added.

Among the brand vendors, HP sustained its leadership with 14.6 per cent market share in Q1 2008, followed by Dell and Lenovo. Local players Flora and Daffodil together contributed 4.7 per cent to total PC shipments. Among application segments, Springboard reported that only government and home segments registered positive growth of 77.6 per cent and 16.8 per cent YTY respectively, while corporate and education segments registered negative growth during the quarter. However, corporate segment still accounted for around 58.1 per cent of total market share in the quarter.

"While the government segment recorded the highest annual growth mainly due to its prioritisation of the IT sector, the home segment was a major buyer of lower priced notebooks from MNCs and helped push up the overall numbers for the quarter," Bahl said.

In spite of instability looming large over Bangladesh's economic climate, the PC/Server market outlook remains positive on account of several effective measures taken by Bangladesh's caretaker government. Springboard Research expects the market to grow at a sustainable pace in ensuing quarters fuelled by some expected deals from the corporate and government segments. Springboard estimates that Bangladesh's PC/Server market will grow at a CAGR of 13.6 per cent until 2011, led predominantly by portables.

Asia Emerging Countries Tracker is a Springboard Research service that tracks PC/Server market developments in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan on a quarterly basis. The methodology employed for this service leverages interviews with IT resellers, vendors, component suppliers and end-users at the local and regional level.

Springboard Research is a next-generation IT market research and advisory firm. Springboard leverages its pioneering research model to deliver greater agility and flexibility in IT market research and helps its clients lead rather than follow market trends. Springboard works with the leading IT companies in the world in the software, services, telecommunications and hardware sectors. Founded in 2004, Springboard has a worldwide presence with offices in the United States, Australia, Singapore and Japan, as well as global research centres in India, Pakistan, and Morocco. Springboard has been acknowledged as an emerging leader and was recently named 'Rising Star' in the global IT market research industry by Outsell, the leading research and advisory firm for the information industry.

The Independent
18 July 2008
Shahidul K K Shuvra
01715245459