China to surpass Japan as top Asian PC market

["Ulhas Joglekar" <uvj@xxxxxxxx>]

The Times of India

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2002

China to surpass Japan as top Asian PC market

REUTERS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 09, 2002  10:18:58 AM

HONG KONG: With their economies moving in opposite directions, China is set
to overtake Japan as Asia's biggest market for personal computer sales in
2003, research firm International Data Corp said on Wednesday.

Kitty Fok, hardware analyst at IDC in Hong Kong, said China was on track for
sales of 13.2 million PCs in 2003, compared with a forecast 12.7 million
unit sales in Japan.

Leapfrogging Japan would make China the world's second-biggest PC market
after the United States.

For 2001, China is expected to have moved 8.9 million PCs, increasing to
10.8 million in 2002, Fok told Reuters.

Recession-wracked Japan is expected to have seen 13.3 million PC sales in
2001, with a forecast drop to 11.7 million in 2002 before a recovery in
2003, IDC said.

"The market is pretty bad at the moment," Fok said of Japan, while demand
continues to grow in China.

Top mainland PC maker Legend Holdings enjoyed a 31 per cent market share on
its home turf during the first three quarters of 2001, IDC said.

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