China surpassed US in Q2 2011 to become the largest PC market

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
IDC reports that China has surpassed the US in demand for PCs, with the country consuming 18.5 million shipments worth $11.9 billion, compared to domestic shipments of 17.7 million units worth $11.7 billion.



The firm's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker report states China now accounts for a 22% share of the global PC market, compared to 21 percent for the US.



"On a full year basis, IDC still expects the U.S. to remain the largest market in 2011, with 73.5 million units forecast to be shipped in the U.S. versus 72.4 million in China," the firm reports.



"Similarly, holiday season buying in the U.S. will likely keep it ahead of China in the fourth quarter, especially as China's market contracts after its third quarter summer promotions. IDC does not expect China to exceed the U.S. in full year shipments until 2012, when 85.2 million units are forecast to be shipped in China and 76.6 million units in the U.S."



The firm labels its China figures as PRC (People's Republic of China), suggesting that those sales only relate to mainland China and not the "Greater China" region that includes Taiwan and Hong Kong.



The report cites Kitty Fok, IDC's vice president for Greater China research, as saying "the Chinese government's 12th Five-Year Plan should help large enterprises in various infrastructure verticals to continue to move along, not to mention of course the ongoing efforts to increase consumer penetration in lower-tier cities," suggesting that the number pertains to the PRC itself, despite IDC having a "Greater China Research" group.



IDC's figures do not include the iPad, but do include netbooks and other portable computers. That excludes 9.25 million Apple devices sold the June quarter, equivalent to nearly half of the PC market in China.



Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    China's the next undiscovered country. Apple has great brand-image there. With incomes (slowly) rising, Apple is in a ridiculously envious position of making a $h!t0ad of cash there.



    I wonder if Apple has to have a half-partner in China in order to sell there?
  • Reply 2 of 11
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    I fully admit both my ignorance and my willingness to learn. How does one type on a QWERTY keyboard designed for the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet in Chinese, a language based on thousands of characters?
  • Reply 3 of 11
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    I fully admit both my ignorance and my willingness to learn. How does one type on a QWERTY keyboard designed for the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet in Chinese, a language based on thousands of characters?



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te1t6ZAUSi0
  • Reply 4 of 11
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    I love the rise of china. Now we just need Mexico to rise as well and the us will be surrounded by the most awesome and advanced countries in the world.



    As far as apple is concerned definitely huge growth market. China already has android, but is a fork, so google is a bit shut out (I think is called ophone). That allows apple to get at least the same or even greater market share in china. They don't even need to promote themselves, fake stores are already doing that for them.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te1t6ZAUSi0



    Thanks, most informative. Obviously touch screen keyboards were born for this functionality. I still wonder about hard keyboards though.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    Thanks, most informative. Obviously touch screen keyboards were born for this functionality. I still wonder about hard keyboards though.



    My friend showed me that there is a special software for Chinese input. Type in four us letters and it converts to Chinese character. I was still confused but it was pretty speedy while he was doing it. Perhaps they just spell out what the word sounds like using this software.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sflocal View Post


    I wonder if Apple has to have a half-partner in China in order to sell there?



    No.



    Moreover, since a non-trivial part of the i-universe value-added passes through China anyway, I guess they feel like they're getting their fair share.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    No.



    Moreover, since a non-trivial part of the i-universe value-added passes through China anyway, I guess they feel like they're getting their fair share.



    Ah yes. Very true. I just remembered back in the day that if a company wanted to set up shop, the chinese government had to have a 51%(??) ownership.



    Apple does keep China industries humming for sure.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    I fully admit both my ignorance and my willingness to learn. How does one type on a QWERTY keyboard designed for the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet in Chinese, a language based on thousands of characters?



    With difficulty I would imagine. That's why I am hoping Apple maybe better positioned to service this market that anyone else if an iOS / OS X type hybrid with touch graphical keyboard can be developed.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    Watching the economic rise of China reminds me of the economic rise of Japan and South Korea.

    It will be interesting to see how affluence affects the people and culture.
  • Reply 11 of 11
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post


    I fully admit both my ignorance and my willingness to learn. How does one type on a QWERTY keyboard designed for the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet in Chinese, a language based on thousands of characters?



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaniz...ndarin_Chinese



    Similar methods are used in Japanese and other East Asian languages. Note that these are rule based systems, the computer does not do anything intelligent. But there are systems that can take a more general input and correctly predict the right character combination- I once worked with a professor who worked on the AI part of such systems.
Sign In or Register to comment.