Friday, July 13, 2007 More Cebuanos going for branded PCs
AS technology becomes an important tool for business transactions or home use, the Cebu personal computer (PC) market has slowly shifted from the white box to the branded market, an industry official said.
“More and more people are thinking that the premium is worth it,” said Chin-Teik See, Hewlett-Packard (HP) personal systems group general manager and vice-president for Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
Ng Khai Development Corp. president Wilson Ng confirmed this, saying that as Cebu becomes economically progressive, purchasing power increases so people are starting to look at products that are more reliable and secure.
“The new trend is that people are buying more branded computers rather than those assembled ones,” said Ng.
Value for money
While there is still a market for the white box PCs, Cebuanos have learned to appreciate the benefits of spending extra money for branded units since it already contains licensed software and additional features, he said.
However, See said the white box market continues to dominate the Philippines’ PC industry, accounting for 80 percent, but added that “the demand for branded PCs has grown.”
He added that HP Philippines, through extending its product line offering more affordable PCs, targets to increase the branded PC market in the country to 50 percent, similar to other Asian countries.
Market share
In an interview, See said HP Philippines is also determined to increase PC penetration in the country which is currently at four percent.
Apart from reducing its PC cost, the company will also push for PC literacy.
“We look at the glass as half full. There’s still 96 percent opportunity to grow our market here,” he said.
He also said that in the Philippines, the average selling price for branded PCs is now reduced to about $800 per unit.
According to See, the affordability of their products has become a magnet especially among call center companies.
In their visits to call centers both in Manila and Cebu, HP Philippines has been getting inquiries for additional purchase of PCs and notebooks, among others, since many call center firms are now on an expansion mode, he said earlier.
See said that with HP becoming the biggest supplier in the country’s PC market, he is confident the Asia Pacific region will grow in revenue size due to the bullishness of the market here. (MMM)
