Friday, July 04, 2008 PC dealers retain positive outlook for ’08 despite increasing prices
DISTRIBUTORS and resellers of computers and computer accessories remain optimistic about achieving revenue growth this year, despite rising prices.
But Juan G. Chua, a director of the Computer Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines (Comddap), admitted that the retail sector of the information technology (IT) industry is experiencing a “slowdown.”
“(Sales) is a bit slow,” he said in a press conference yesterday during the opening of the Comddap Cebu 2008 expo at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall.
“But the BPO (business process outsourcing) industry is very, very vibrant so we are still quite positive there would be growth,” he added.
Compared to last year’s overall growth of 15 percent, however, Chua said Comddap expects this year’s revenues to increase only by about five to 10 percent.
In an interview, he said growth in sales will be significant in Cebu because of the fast growing BPO industry in the province.
He noted that as Manila has become congested, many BPO companies have expanded to Cebu and other parts of the Visayas.
“And these BPO companies invest in IT,” he said.
He also said that aside from computers becoming a necessity, not just for business but also for households, IT spending will grow because the prices of computers and related products have decreased.
Chua said households, particularly those with members who are based overseas, consider computers and Internet connection a necessity. “Computers and the Internet are the cheapest way to communicate with family members based abroad,” he noted.
He told Sun.Star Cebu that, in general, prices of IT products have decreased by about 10 percent to 15 percent a year.
“We (IT retail sector) are the only sector where prices have gone down instead of up,” he said, adding that innovation is the main reason for the decreasing prices of computers and computer accessories.
At the Comddap expo, computers and computer accessories are even cheaper, said Comddap director Vinchy Sanchez.
He said some exhibitors at the expo have slashed down prices of IT products by as much as 50 percent while some give out special items to buyers.
Comddap 2008 chairman Salvador Lastrilla appealed to the public to visit the expo. Comddap plans to donate P1 for every person who visits the Cebu expo to typhoon victims in Aklan.
The group hopes to attract 40,000 to 50,000, which means it would be able to donate P40,000 to P50,000 to the Aklan Medical Society, which is conducting medical missions for typhoon victims in the Western Visayas province.
Lastrilla said this year’s Cebu expo has 32 exhibitors, compared to the Comddap event in 2006 that was participated in by 25 companies.
He said Comddap also expects more business visitors in this year’s expo, or 80 percent compared to 20 percent from the academe. (LAP)
