STAMFORD, USA: The worst may be over for the PC industry, as worldwide PC shipments are on pace to reach 285 million units in 2009, a 2 percent decline from 2008 shipments of 291 million, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. The new forecast is more optimistic than Gartner’s June forecast, which anticipated a 6 percent unit decline in 2009.
"PC demand appears be running much stronger than we expected back in June, especially in the US and China," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner. "Mobile PC shipments have regained substantial momentum, especially in emerging markets, and the decline in desk-based PC shipments is slowing down. We think shipments are likely to be growing again in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the fourth quarter of 2008."
Despite the increasingly positive outlook for the PC market, Gartner does not envision global shipments experiencing growth this year except as a very best-case scenario. PC units contracted 4.4 percent in the first half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2008.
For PC shipments to post growth for the year, shipments would have to grow at least 4 percent in the second half of 2009 compared with the second half of 2008. Gartner analysts said that scenario seems just a bit beyond the market's capability at this point, even assuming Windows 7 enjoys an enthusiastic reception when it is released October 22.
"We don't expect the release of Windows 7 to significantly influence PC demand at year-end," Shiffler said. "At best, Windows 7 may generate a modest bump in home demand and possibly some added demand among small businesses. However, we aren't expecting most larger businesses, governments and educational institutions to express strong demand for the new operating system until late 2010. We're actually more concerned that vendors will overestimate the initial demand for Windows 7 and end up carrying excess inventories into 2010."
Mini-notebooks continued to grow strongly in the second quarter of 2009 but faced increasing competition from lower-priced mainstream notebooks. They also continued to put tremendous downward pressure on PC prices in general and consumer mobile PC prices in particular.
Gartner has revised its mini-notebook forecast upward. Worldwide mini-notebook shipments are now forecast to reach 25 million units in 2009, up from Gartner's projection in May of 21 million shipments. Shipments are now forecast to reach 37 million units in 2010. Even so, mini-notebooks' share of the overall mobile PC market is now expected to level out a bit sooner than before.
"At least unit-wise, 2010 should be a considerably better year for the PC market," Shiffler noted. "We now expect units to grow 12.6 percent next year as mobile PC growth continues to gain momentum and desk-based PC growth turns positive, thanks to revived replacement activity. However, we don’t see the on-going declines in PC average selling prices slowing down significantly next year, so spending is likely to be more or less flat in 2010."
Showing posts with label Gartner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gartner. Show all posts
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Printer, copier and multifunctional product market drops 20 percent in H1-2009
EGHAM, UK: The worldwide combined printer, copier and multifunctional product (MFP) shipments market totalled 51.3 million units in the first half of 2009, a 20.2 percent decline over first half of 2008 shipments, according to Gartner Inc.
“The market witnessed a weak demand as both businesses and consumers reduced spending and the drop in shipments was also impacted by tighter inventory controls in order to minimise inventory levels in the channels,” said Lai-Ling Lam, senior research analyst at Gartner. “The situation was further exacerbated by the shortages of popular low-end inkjets and page printers to home, small businesses, and small and medium businesses (SMBs).”
Not a single region was spared the downward trend. The emerging regions of Eastern Europe, Middle East and Latin America were the worst hit as shipments declined 41.8 percent, 28 percent and 22.9 percent, respectively in the first half of 2009.
Office printing devices fuelled the overall decline in the global print market, with a 24.5 percent decrease in the first half of 2009. “In this tough economic environment, businesses are delaying or eliminating purchases of new equipments altogether.
The global downturn has also forced them to review their printing needs, which could change their print consumptions in the long term. At the same time, it also makes print vendors increasingly look at alternative hardware strategies such as managed print service (MPS) and smart MFP adoption as ways to increase revenue,” added Ms Lam.
The consumer inkjet products were less impacted by the global economic downturn, declining 17.3 percent in the first half of 2009. Despite cautious consumer spending, there are opportunities as demand for wireless inkjets buoyed the consumer market.
From a vendor perspective, Hewlett-Packard dropped at a faster pace than the overall market (see Table 1). HP lost 3.4 percentage points market share to total 40 percent market share in the first half of 2009 as it maintained a tighter control over its channel inventory levels amidst weakening demand. “HP’s loss was Canon’s gain, which had stable performance in Americas and Asia/Pacific, helping it to increase its market share to 19 percent in the first half of 2009.
Table 1
Worldwide printer, copier and MFP unit shipments, 1H-09
Source: Gartner (August 2009)
Despite signs that the world economy is improving, there are no indications that the worldwide print market is going to see improvement in the second half of 2009.
“A best case scenario will see some improvement in demand, loosening in inventory control and fulfilment of back orders which would uplift the market, ending the year with a single-digit decline. However, we do not expect the market to recover before 2010,” concluded Ms Lam.
“The market witnessed a weak demand as both businesses and consumers reduced spending and the drop in shipments was also impacted by tighter inventory controls in order to minimise inventory levels in the channels,” said Lai-Ling Lam, senior research analyst at Gartner. “The situation was further exacerbated by the shortages of popular low-end inkjets and page printers to home, small businesses, and small and medium businesses (SMBs).”
Not a single region was spared the downward trend. The emerging regions of Eastern Europe, Middle East and Latin America were the worst hit as shipments declined 41.8 percent, 28 percent and 22.9 percent, respectively in the first half of 2009.
Office printing devices fuelled the overall decline in the global print market, with a 24.5 percent decrease in the first half of 2009. “In this tough economic environment, businesses are delaying or eliminating purchases of new equipments altogether.
The global downturn has also forced them to review their printing needs, which could change their print consumptions in the long term. At the same time, it also makes print vendors increasingly look at alternative hardware strategies such as managed print service (MPS) and smart MFP adoption as ways to increase revenue,” added Ms Lam.
The consumer inkjet products were less impacted by the global economic downturn, declining 17.3 percent in the first half of 2009. Despite cautious consumer spending, there are opportunities as demand for wireless inkjets buoyed the consumer market.
From a vendor perspective, Hewlett-Packard dropped at a faster pace than the overall market (see Table 1). HP lost 3.4 percentage points market share to total 40 percent market share in the first half of 2009 as it maintained a tighter control over its channel inventory levels amidst weakening demand. “HP’s loss was Canon’s gain, which had stable performance in Americas and Asia/Pacific, helping it to increase its market share to 19 percent in the first half of 2009.
Table 1
Worldwide printer, copier and MFP unit shipments, 1H-09
Source: Gartner (August 2009)Despite signs that the world economy is improving, there are no indications that the worldwide print market is going to see improvement in the second half of 2009.
“A best case scenario will see some improvement in demand, loosening in inventory control and fulfilment of back orders which would uplift the market, ending the year with a single-digit decline. However, we do not expect the market to recover before 2010,” concluded Ms Lam.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Printer OEMs could lose over $13bn to third-party remanufacturers over next 12 months
STAMFORD, USA: Printer OEMs could lose more than $13 billion in the next 12 months as procurement managers and other supply buyers increasingly turn to remanufactured supplies to help them cut costs during the downturn, according to Gartner Inc.
“Because printer supplies produce a higher margin than the product itself, this trend is leading to lower profits for printer OEMs,” said Ken Weilerstein, research vice president at Gartner.
“In addition, there is potential for damage to the printer OEMs’ brand because of poor quality and counterfeits. However, OEMs are well-placed to take advantage of the challenges facing the remanufacturers, and the marketing team must play a key part in this. OEMs already have the advantage of understanding the market, their competitors, and buyers’ preferences.”
Gartner has identified three steps that marketing staffs can use to help their company win back market shares from supply remanufacturers in emerging markets and stop the remanufacturers from denting aftermarket profits.
Step 1. Design a Marketing Campaign That Begins With Education —- During the downturn, organizations, procurement managers, and print supply buyers are extremely cost-conscious. OEM marketers should create a campaign to educate buyers and users.
It will explain why buyers should continue to choose its products, and why these products cost more than those of the remanufacturers. To succeed, the campaign must draw on corporate branding, marketing communications, line of business marketing, partner marketing and field marketing teams, as well as senior management.
Step 2. Execute the Campaign Aggressively — In the minds of some buyers, remanufactured supplies are both less expensive and more environmentally friendly. Original supplies also have substantial cost savings and environmental benefits, and OEMS must present their side of the story effectively.
Beyond branding, OEMs have inherent strengths in yields, reliability and image quality — the same areas where remanufacturers continually struggle to catch up.
Step 3. Utilize PR and Legal Successes Judiciously — Some OEMs work hard to protect their patents and copyrights against remanufacturers, but then fail to explain their legal actions in a way that customers can understand and appreciate.
Even a favorable verdict can damage the image of vendors that come across as bullies. Public relations teams should address the OEM’s efforts proactively and explain the context fairly.
“Remanufacturers will continue to make inroads into the print supply aftermarket if an OEM competes purely on cost,” said Vishal Tripathi, principal analyst at Gartner.
“Therefore, marketing campaigns need to focus on end-user education, highlighting aspects such as environmental friendliness and the importance of third-party certification for yield quality. These OEMs should back this with aggressive marketing that shows strengths while highlighting the quality challenges faced by remanufacturers.”
“Don’t be afraid to play on concerns about counterfeit products and poor print yields,” said Laura McLellan, research vice president at Gartner.
“Marketing against lower-cost competitors is never easy or inexpensive, but following these steps can remind corporate supply buyers why they should choose OEM-produced print supplies.”
“Because printer supplies produce a higher margin than the product itself, this trend is leading to lower profits for printer OEMs,” said Ken Weilerstein, research vice president at Gartner.
“In addition, there is potential for damage to the printer OEMs’ brand because of poor quality and counterfeits. However, OEMs are well-placed to take advantage of the challenges facing the remanufacturers, and the marketing team must play a key part in this. OEMs already have the advantage of understanding the market, their competitors, and buyers’ preferences.”
Gartner has identified three steps that marketing staffs can use to help their company win back market shares from supply remanufacturers in emerging markets and stop the remanufacturers from denting aftermarket profits.
Step 1. Design a Marketing Campaign That Begins With Education —- During the downturn, organizations, procurement managers, and print supply buyers are extremely cost-conscious. OEM marketers should create a campaign to educate buyers and users.
It will explain why buyers should continue to choose its products, and why these products cost more than those of the remanufacturers. To succeed, the campaign must draw on corporate branding, marketing communications, line of business marketing, partner marketing and field marketing teams, as well as senior management.
Step 2. Execute the Campaign Aggressively — In the minds of some buyers, remanufactured supplies are both less expensive and more environmentally friendly. Original supplies also have substantial cost savings and environmental benefits, and OEMS must present their side of the story effectively.
Beyond branding, OEMs have inherent strengths in yields, reliability and image quality — the same areas where remanufacturers continually struggle to catch up.
Step 3. Utilize PR and Legal Successes Judiciously — Some OEMs work hard to protect their patents and copyrights against remanufacturers, but then fail to explain their legal actions in a way that customers can understand and appreciate.
Even a favorable verdict can damage the image of vendors that come across as bullies. Public relations teams should address the OEM’s efforts proactively and explain the context fairly.
“Remanufacturers will continue to make inroads into the print supply aftermarket if an OEM competes purely on cost,” said Vishal Tripathi, principal analyst at Gartner.
“Therefore, marketing campaigns need to focus on end-user education, highlighting aspects such as environmental friendliness and the importance of third-party certification for yield quality. These OEMs should back this with aggressive marketing that shows strengths while highlighting the quality challenges faced by remanufacturers.”
“Don’t be afraid to play on concerns about counterfeit products and poor print yields,” said Laura McLellan, research vice president at Gartner.
“Marketing against lower-cost competitors is never easy or inexpensive, but following these steps can remind corporate supply buyers why they should choose OEM-produced print supplies.”
Monday, July 13, 2009
Navigation solution providers face challenging market, increasing consolidation
STAMFORD, USA: Navigation solution providers are facing business challenges as growing competition, device platform diversity and undifferentiated value propositions are accelerating commoditization trends, according to Gartner Inc.
These factors are impacting navigation solution providers' and automakers' revenue opportunities and will lead to further market consolidation and margin decline.
In the first quarter of 2009, Gartner conducted surveys of 2,000 consumers in the US and Germany and found that navigation is the most-desired vehicle IT application among consumers — even more important than safety- and security-centric in-vehicle applications.
"US and German consumers show more interest in navigation solutions than in any other in-vehicle technology" said Thilo Koslowski, research vice president at Gartner.
"This is partly due to companies' aggressive marketing efforts, but it's also due to cost-conscious consumers' desire to leverage navigation offerings to minimize fuel consumption, as well as reduce driving-related pollution."
Despite the growth in use of navigation solutions, many providers are experiencing business challenges. Portable navigation device (PND) manufacturers in particular are facing increased commoditization.
This trend is further compounded by the weak global economy and growing number of available device platforms in the consumer electronics industry that offer navigation add-ons or downloadable applications. Gartner predicts that this will lead to further price declines and lower profit margins for PNDs over the next two years.
"Retail prices for an entry-level, unconnected PND product may be as low as $49 by 2012. That's around 10 percent of the average retail price of a standard PND device in 2004," said Koslowski. Some low-end niche PNDs may be priced even lower by offering only limited map data, smaller point-of-interest databases and basic displays.
Koslowski said that to protect future viability, navigation solution providers have two general strategic directions to choose from. The first is to achieve cost, price and distribution leadership in order to succeed with high sales volumes. However, by definition, only very few companies will be able to execute this strategy successfully.
The second strategy open to providers is to transform the current device-centric value proposition into a service-centric one. The service will be device-platform-agnostic and will be wirelessly accessible from any device and offered with a variety of billing options that consumers can choose from.
This approach will give companies the opportunity to become personal-navigation-service providers and create a foundation for continuous innovation and delivery of new location-aware features.
These factors are impacting navigation solution providers' and automakers' revenue opportunities and will lead to further market consolidation and margin decline.
In the first quarter of 2009, Gartner conducted surveys of 2,000 consumers in the US and Germany and found that navigation is the most-desired vehicle IT application among consumers — even more important than safety- and security-centric in-vehicle applications.
"US and German consumers show more interest in navigation solutions than in any other in-vehicle technology" said Thilo Koslowski, research vice president at Gartner.
"This is partly due to companies' aggressive marketing efforts, but it's also due to cost-conscious consumers' desire to leverage navigation offerings to minimize fuel consumption, as well as reduce driving-related pollution."
Despite the growth in use of navigation solutions, many providers are experiencing business challenges. Portable navigation device (PND) manufacturers in particular are facing increased commoditization.
This trend is further compounded by the weak global economy and growing number of available device platforms in the consumer electronics industry that offer navigation add-ons or downloadable applications. Gartner predicts that this will lead to further price declines and lower profit margins for PNDs over the next two years.
"Retail prices for an entry-level, unconnected PND product may be as low as $49 by 2012. That's around 10 percent of the average retail price of a standard PND device in 2004," said Koslowski. Some low-end niche PNDs may be priced even lower by offering only limited map data, smaller point-of-interest databases and basic displays.
Koslowski said that to protect future viability, navigation solution providers have two general strategic directions to choose from. The first is to achieve cost, price and distribution leadership in order to succeed with high sales volumes. However, by definition, only very few companies will be able to execute this strategy successfully.
The second strategy open to providers is to transform the current device-centric value proposition into a service-centric one. The service will be device-platform-agnostic and will be wirelessly accessible from any device and offered with a variety of billing options that consumers can choose from.
This approach will give companies the opportunity to become personal-navigation-service providers and create a foundation for continuous innovation and delivery of new location-aware features.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wireless connectivity to be main focus for vehicle manufacturers by 2012
STAMFORD, USA: By 2012, the majority of vehicle manufacturers will concentrate product development efforts for mature markets on enabling wireless data connectivity in more than half of their next-generation cars, according to Gartner Inc.
“The automotive industry must explore new ways to generate consumer interest, product differentiation and revenue opportunities,” said Thilo Koslowski, research vice president at Gartner.
“Web-based applications and services specifically designed to enhance the driving and ownership experience, in particular, represent a significant chance to accomplish this. During the past two years, consumer awareness and interest for such technologies and applications has grown significantly in mature automotive markets, such as the United States and Western Europe. The goal is to provide dynamic content that is contextual and relevant to the driver and the passengers. It’s not about replicating consumers’ home computer Internet experience”
The continued rise of connected consumer devices, such as smartphones and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), will increase consumer expectations for always-on data availability throughout their work and home, and when being mobile — including when driving.
The automotive industry's ability to differentiate mass-market vehicles based on performance and handling will be limited from this point on, because of environmental and economic concerns, as well as the rise of electric vehicles and other alternative powertrain offerings.
Gartner anticipates that by 2016, consumers will consider in-vehicle connectivity as important as traditional automobile features (for example, safety and fuel efficiency). This means that automotive companies must offer such functionality in two vehicle generations (one generation is traditionally four years) from today, to meet future demand.
Automotive companies will increasingly build in-house expertise to offer connectivity solutions on a growing number of cars and will work with other external partners to offer holistic offerings that address consumers' broader transportation needs.
“Suppliers, content and service providers, as well as automotive-focused technology vendors will evolve and take on broader roles to address automakers' needs for offering such connectivity, integration and content solutions,” Koslowski said.
“The growing need for connectivity solutions in the automobile will also have a significant impact on the automotive aftermarket and will provide opportunities for those companies that can offer cost-effective retrofit solutions for vehicle owners that want to upgrade their existing cars.”
“The automotive industry must explore new ways to generate consumer interest, product differentiation and revenue opportunities,” said Thilo Koslowski, research vice president at Gartner.
“Web-based applications and services specifically designed to enhance the driving and ownership experience, in particular, represent a significant chance to accomplish this. During the past two years, consumer awareness and interest for such technologies and applications has grown significantly in mature automotive markets, such as the United States and Western Europe. The goal is to provide dynamic content that is contextual and relevant to the driver and the passengers. It’s not about replicating consumers’ home computer Internet experience”
The continued rise of connected consumer devices, such as smartphones and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), will increase consumer expectations for always-on data availability throughout their work and home, and when being mobile — including when driving.
The automotive industry's ability to differentiate mass-market vehicles based on performance and handling will be limited from this point on, because of environmental and economic concerns, as well as the rise of electric vehicles and other alternative powertrain offerings.
Gartner anticipates that by 2016, consumers will consider in-vehicle connectivity as important as traditional automobile features (for example, safety and fuel efficiency). This means that automotive companies must offer such functionality in two vehicle generations (one generation is traditionally four years) from today, to meet future demand.
Automotive companies will increasingly build in-house expertise to offer connectivity solutions on a growing number of cars and will work with other external partners to offer holistic offerings that address consumers' broader transportation needs.
“Suppliers, content and service providers, as well as automotive-focused technology vendors will evolve and take on broader roles to address automakers' needs for offering such connectivity, integration and content solutions,” Koslowski said.
“The growing need for connectivity solutions in the automobile will also have a significant impact on the automotive aftermarket and will provide opportunities for those companies that can offer cost-effective retrofit solutions for vehicle owners that want to upgrade their existing cars.”
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