Infotech Lead Asia: Laptops and desktop computers worth $612.8 million were sold to consumers and businesses across Thailand in the first half of 2012.
While 392,000 desktop computers were consumed, the number of laptops was 628,000.
GfK said the B2B market in Thailand account for 23 percent in volume sales and contribute nearly 28 percent to the overall worth of these two IT products.
Desktop computers and laptops are the two key products contributing the greatest dollar share in B2B IT sales. In the first half, businesses purchased 157,000 desktops and 78,000 laptops worth more than $170.2 million.
“Sales performance has been robust in the beginning of the year due to a major IT hardware upgrading in the financial sector during the first half of the year. Last year’s flooding incident also escalated demand for replacement PC devices by a large number of companies which were affected by the disaster,” said Wichit Purepong, general manager of GfK Thailand.
Laptops are generally more popular with end-users. Desktops are in higher demand among businesses in Thailand. B2B desktop sales through corporate resellers made up 40 percent of the total desktop market sales volume; significantly higher than the B2B laptop segment which only occupied 12 percent.
Laptops and desktop computers in the corporate market have 47 and 20 percent higher average prices compared to those in the retail sector. $828 and $674 respectively, the significantly higher cost paid by corporations is due to the better specifications as well as additional charges that comes with the licensed software and services which accompany corporate requirements.
With many large IT projects by corporations and the government such as the Office of Basic Education Commission in the pipeline, GfK expects substantial IT hardware sales coming from these avenues. GfK foresees that the strong performance of the B2B IT sector in the second half of the year will hold up or even outshine its first half year results.
