Most Buyers Still Choose Regular Notebooks Over Mini-Notebooks: IDC Survey

In 2009, the average household in the Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region has two PCs and bought a mini-notebook as an additional PC, according to a recent IDC survey-based report entitled "Asia Pacific Consumer PC Buyer Behavior".

The survey, which polled 2,263 new PC buyers across the APEJ region for their PC buying preferences, covered Australia, India, Korea, Malaysia, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

"Despite mini-notebooks flying off the shelves, which helped to buoy PC volumes especially during the economic crisis in 2009, limited cannibalization of regular notebook sales is expected across the region. Among the survey respondents, 60 percent indicated that they would still purchase a regular notebook as their next PC,” said Reuben Tan, Senior Manager of Asia Pacific Personal Systems Research at IDC.

Other survey highlights include:

• Respondents across the region said they prefer to buy a PC from an IT mall in general.

• Most respondents in China, India, Malaysia, and Singapore indicated that the length of warranty and after-sales support were the most important factors influencing their decision in purchasing a new PC. On the other hand, PC brand and store location were among the least important concerns when purchasing a new PC.

• Across the region, PCs were primarily used for online news and information, followed by entertainment/games, and educational purposes, in respective order.

• Over half of the total respondents said that they were likely to purchase a new monitor only to replace a faulty monitor, whereas only about 16 percent were willing to buy a new monitor when prices became more affordable, or to upgrade their current monitor to a larger size.

www.idc.com