17 Jan 2013

MIC, the Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute of the Taiwan-based Institute for Information Industries is one of the big soothsayers in the ICT field, widely acknowledged by players for the accuracy of its findings and opinions.

According to MIC, the worldwide PC shipment volume in 2012 witnessed a 1,1 over 2011 with about 322 million units. The decline is blamed to the ongoing global economic uncertainties. In addition, impacted by the replacement demand of notebook PCs for tablets, notebook PC market performance had been falling behind expectations. Regarding product specifications, whether slim products such als Ultrabooks can stand out will depend on whether the production costs can be reduced as anticipated.

Looking at the market in 2013, the global uncertaincies will remain to be a major factor to affect PC market development. Although the signs of revial are not yet evident, it seems inlikely that the global economy will do much worse. Therefore, it is expected that the global PC market volume will only see mild fluctuations. According to MIC, the global PC volume will inch uo 3% year-on-year in 2013 to around332 million units. Regarding development of notebook PCs, due to price reductions of Ultrabooks and the market demand generated from the launch of Windows 8, the shipment growth is projected to regain slightly. Consequently, global notebook PC market volume will reach around 205 million units in 2013, up 5,9% year-on-year.

On the software side, MIC expects the release of Windows 8/ Windows RT to add morevariables in the competition between Intel and ARM. With the launch of Windows 8, the PC industry is due to enter a new era of the competition full of new productd options. Leading tablet branded vendors are taking the advantage of Windows 8 to roll out new products and seek cooperation with the new channel distributors in a bid to shed light on the post-PC era.