By Aly Mohd

Apple overtook Acer and Dell for the first time in any one quarter to grab the second position behind HP in the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) PC market by unit shipments, according to a report from IDC.

The overall PC market, however, dropped by 8% quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2011 to 1.61 million unit shipments as expected. Aggressive promotions initiated by national retailers such as Harvey Norman's 2 for 1 sale were key drivers in encouraging demand and sell-through which pushed the market 3% higher than the same period last year.
 
The implementation of the carbon tax and the deteriorating European economy, coupled with unexpected shortages in the supply of AMD processors in the self-assembled PC market brought the market in below forecasts.

In New Zealand, although the Rugby World Cup was a boon to the overall economy and consumer sentiments, IT sales were affected as spending was diverted to non-IT products.
 
"There were delays in government project roll outs while HP's channels cut back in stock intake as a precautionary measure in view of market softness," said IDC market analyst, Amy Cheah.

"The unfortunate 'PSG spin off' debacle also momentarily affected confidence in HP's strategic outlook which opened a window of opportunity for competitors such as Apple to gain share."
 
Despite an industry-wide HDD supply shortage resulting from severe flooding in Thailand, IDC believes most Q4 inventory orders were placed before the shortage took effect, thus Christmas sales and large education deals in Queensland and New South Wales are expected to see only minor disruption.

IDC expects the ANZ PC market to grow 10% quarter-on-quarter to 1.77 million unit shipments considering the year end sales and education rollout period.
 
"Consumers who are generally more price sensitive will feel more of the pinch when the higher cost of HDD is passed on to end users," said Cheah.

"Though this issue impacts the supply-side more than demand, the effect of tightening HDD supply will cascade down to end users as vendors limit promotions and shift focus to premium products to balance out profit margins," she added.