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Thursday, July 21, 2005
Ng: Alive and kicking
By Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop
DEATH. For years, rumors and reports have circulated about the imminent death of the general purpose personal computer, as other devices were introduced. These range from the network computer and the TIVOs, to the mp3 players, game stations, personal digital assistants and tablets.
There are now more people with cell phones than personal computers, even if cell phones came almost 10 years later. In the Philippines, there are probably only a million or so computers sold, as well as generous estimates of about two or three million Internet users. But cell phone users number around 20 million, outnumbering computer users 10 to 1.
However, the growth of the PC (personal computer) seems to continue. According to IDC, worldwide shipments of personal
computers rose 16.6 percent in the second quarter of 2005, as surging international demand and price wars drove shipments to their highest quarterly growth rate in nearly five years.
Dell sales grew by 23.7 percent, while HP sales grew by 16.3 percent. The top five computer makers in terms of market share were Dell (19.3 percent), HP (15.6 percent), Lenovo/IBM (7.6 percent), Acer (4.4 percent), and Fujitsu/Siemens (3.7 percent).
Gartner reported slightly different figures as it reported that worldwide PC shipments totaled 48.9 million units in the second quarter of 2005, a 14.8 percent increase from the same period last year.
The market growth in the United States, Europe/ Middle East/Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America were all in double figures.
Whichever way you look at it, it seems like the PC’s death is still years away.
I came across a recent report that said Filipinos are number four among the world’s bookworms after the Indians, Chinese and Thais. Filipinos also ranked second in the NOP world culture score index in the most number of hours present in front of the TV, next to the Thais.
The NOP world culture score index surveyed over 30,000 consumers over 13 years of age in 30 countries from December 2004 to February 2005.
The Filipinos were found to read an average of 7.6 hours per week. Indians read 10.7 hours, while the Chinese were second at eight hours a week. Indians read twice as many hours as Americans, who came in 23rd with 5.7 hours.
Britons ranked 26th with 5.3 hours. The Japanese read 4.1 hours, and the Koreans, 3.1 hours.
The Thais watched TV 22.4 hours per week, while the Filipinos averaged over 21 hours per week. (www.bizdrivenlife.net)
(July 21, 2005 issue)
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