1. Vietnam Remains a Growth Market for PCs, Despite Inventory Concerns in Channels: IDC
13 Jun 2013
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, June 13, 2013 -- Concerns over high inventory carried over
from 2012 failed to stop Vietnam’s PC market from recording solid year-over-year (YoY)
growth in 2013 Q1.
According to IDC's Vietnam Quarterly PC Tracker, nearly 500,000 PCs were shipped in the first
quarter of 2013 (1Q13), a decrease of 20% sequentially but a growth of 13% YoY.
Anticipation of growing consumer demands in under-penetrated areas of Vietnam spurred
vendors to increase consumer PC shipments.
“In light of aggressive competition and pressure from smartphones and tablets, vendors have
shifted strategies to focus on mid to low-end PCs in a bid to gain market share in the consumer
space,” says Yen Phan, Market Analyst for PCs at IDC Vietnam.
She explains that in the commercial space though, sentiments are weak with many SMEs facing
bankruptcies since the previous year.
"The SME sector has been facing major difficulties, but government spending has picked up and
helped the overall commercial market record YoY growth of 8%.”
Despite the concerns over the market’s long-term stability, IDC is still forecasting 5% growth for
Vietnam’s PC market in 2013.
Daniel Pang, ASEAN Research Manager for Client Devices Research at IDC Asia/Pacific says,
“Vietnamese PC vendors have just come out of a tough year. The banking crisis has triggered a
spike in corporate bankruptcies and consumer sentiment is diminished. However, there are signs
that government reforms and new policies could rejuvenate IT spending, and public sector
spending is also expected to pick up in the second half of 2013. Therefore, we remain optimistic
on Vietnam’s outlook."
From a vendor perspective, Dell has been actively working with its channel partners to improve
its inventory management and channel margins. This allows the vendor to be more price-
competitive in the low- to mid-range segment in the consumer space.

2. HP, meanwhile, continues to do well in the commercial space as it had fulfillments for a
government project as well as steady buying from its large enterprise accounts. In the consumer
market the vendor has started to focus on low- to mid-range notebooks as well.
ASUS adopted an aggressive pricing strategy to clear out stocks and improve inventory levels,
with good results.
(Source : IDG press release)