Apple top seller in Hong Kong in Q2
Oct-31-2013 By : agxadmin
Apple led all brands in sales of smartphones, media tablets and laptop personal computers in Hong Kong in the second quarter. According to Dickie Chang, Senior Market Analyst at IDC Asia-Pacific, Hong Kong was the only market in the Asia-Pacific where Apple topped all three categories. Market research company GfK said total spending on smartphones, tablets and notebook computers in the city fell 18% to HKD7.21 billion in the quarter to June from HKD8.81 billion a year earlier. Shipments of those devices in the local market fell 15% to 1.75 million units from 2.06 million in the previous period. Walter Leung, Managing Director of GfK in Hong Kong, said: “Both the smartphone and laptop categories recorded negative growth in the quarter to June, while tablet shipments were on par with the total a year ago.” IDC said tablet shipments continued to be dominated by Apple’s iPad products, followed by tablets from Samsung Electronics, Sony, Asus and Acer. GfK data showed tablet sales dropped 21% to HKD1.24 billion during the quarter from HKD1.57 billion a year ago, while shipments remained flat at 365,000 units. IDC said Apple overtook Samsung during the quarter to regain the No 1 position among smartphone brands in the city. The other top-selling smartphone suppliers were Sony, HTC and LG Electronics. Smartphone sales dropped 19% to HKD5.23 billion on total shipments of 1.29 million units, down from 1.58 million a year earlier. According to GfK, smartphones priced at HKD4,500 and above made up about 50% of total units sold in the period. Laptop computer sales fell 7% to HKD738 million from HKD796 million previously, on purchases that dropped to 105,000 units from 121,000. The city’s top five laptop brands during the second quarter were Apple, Lenovo, Asus, Dell and Acer, the South China Morning Post reports.
Dell push in enterprise server market
By : agxadmin
Computer maker Dell plans to bolster its lead in China’s growing market for enterprise servers, despite efforts by rival Lenovo to expand operations in that niche over the next few years. Dell, which is the world’s third-largest personal computer supplier behind Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard, is also expected “to accelerate development of its capabilities in the market”, Philip Davis, Asia-Pacific Vice President for Dell’s enterprise solutions business, told the South China Morning Post. The company’s “Greater China” operations, which include Hong Kong and Taiwan, employ about 9,000 staff. It plans to add about 100 new sales and marketing personnel this fourth quarter to meet further expansion in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in tier-four to tier-six cities. Dell is spending about USD25 billion a year in China in terms of manufacturing, the sourcing of information-technology components and related products. According to Eric Peng, Research Manager at IDC in Beijing, Dell has led server shipments in China for the past five quarters, but Lenovo has said it would become a bigger player in the server business within three years.
TSMC building huge chip plant in Taiwan
By : agxadmin
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is building a new site the size of about 20 soccer fields in southern Taiwan to manufacture chips smaller than 1/5,000th the size of a human hair. The company plans to invest NTD500 billion and hire 7,000 workers for the new facilities. “TSMC remains by far the biggest player in foundry, and it’ll continue to dominate, as it’s got the biggest capacity and best foundry technology. But margins are set to come under pressure, as it will see more competition from the likes of Samsung”, said Doh Hyun-woo, Analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Seoul. To keep its position as the world’s top foundry business, TSMC must invest even more on research and development (R&D) to boost profitability, says Warren Lau, Hong Kong-based Analyst at Maybank Kim Eng Securities. TSMC makes chips for designers that do not have a production factory, including Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia. Analysts and industry sources say TSMC has snatched the Apple contract from Samsung and its new 20 nm chips will be used in future iPhones and iPads. TSMC’s sales shot up 19.3% in the first eight months of this year from a year earlier thanks to increased chip sales.
Lenovo seizes record share as global PC market slows
By : agxadmin
Lenovo increased its market share to remain the world’s top supplier of personal computers in the three months to September, despite total industry shipments dropping to a five-year low. IDC and Gartner said Lenovo’s personal computer shipments rose about 2% year-on-year in the quarter to 14.1 million units. Lenovo, which operates in more than 160 countries, expanded faster than the overall personal computer market for the 18th consecutive quarter. The company also seized its highest ever quarterly market share, which IDC put at 17.3% and Gartner at 17.6%. That was in contrast to the sixth consecutive quarter of declining shipments for the whole industry. IDC said the global market contracted 7.6% year-on-year to 81.6 million units, while Gartner estimated an 8.6% drop to 80.3 million. Angela Lee, Spokeswoman for Lenovo, said that “the PC industry still represents a USD200 billion opportunity and offers Lenovo substantial room for profitable growth.” In its fiscal first quarter ended June, Lenovo beat analysts’ estimates when it reported a 23% year-on-year increase in net profit to USD174 million on the back of growth in all its geographic markets. Revenue climbed 10% to USD8.7 billion, as it cornered a 16.7% share of the global personal computer market that quarter. Strong growth in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, offset declining personal computer shipments in the Asia-Pacific market”. A report by Barclays predicted Lenovo would “continue growing sales year-on-year even amid a slow global PC demand environment”, the South China Morning Post reports. Lenovo is also the second-biggest smartphone supplier and No 3 media tablet brand in China.
Apple to add more sales outlets in China
By : agxadmin
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook is working to broaden the company’s distribution in China as a way to reignite growth after the iPhone maker reported its first decline in annual profit in at least a decade. Cook said Apple is expanding how it sells the iPhone and iPad in China, focusing on areas outside the country’s largest cities. The firm is adding more outlets besides Apple stores to sell its devices, and the iPhone is now available in 50% more stores in the country than last year, he said. Apple’s sales in China rose 6% in the recent quarter to USD5.7 billion, making it the company’s second-biggest market after the U.S. Yet it lags behind Samsung Electronics and local manufacturers which offer cheaper smartphones and tablets with more design choices than the iPhone and iPad. China is critical as Apple seeks to jump-start sales and profit growth, which have stalled in the increasingly crowded mobile market. Devices running Google’s Android software dominate the mobile market in China. Worldwide, Android is expected to have 75% of the smartphone operating-system market this year, compared with the 17% share for Apple’s iOS software, IDC estimates.
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