ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: The computer market — both in personal computer and server — in Pakistan increased by a modest 5.7 per cent as firms shipped 319,838 units here in the first half of (January-June) 2007 as compared to the same period last year.
According to a private research firm — Springboard Research — the lower than expected growth rate was mainly due to the government’s non-friendly IT policies and continuation of the 15 per cent general sales tax, as well as from increased terrorist attacks and unstable political conditions.
The research firm said the government has shown little support for the IT sector, with no new policies or allocations for IT announced.
The government is, however, continuing with its IT industry development plan, although its actions and policies do not seem to be in sync with desired growth for the sector.
“Pakistan’s IT market is in between a “growth” and “decline” stage, where the country’s political stability will play a major role in overall market performance, said Rehan Ghazi, Springboard Research Analyst.
“Also, before the imposition of the 15 per cent GST in June 2006, Pakistan’s PC/Server market was a “diamond in the rough,” but since then, a downward trend in the IT market has been noticed.
The government’s recent decision not to withdraw or reduce the GST has weakened the growing IT market in the country, he said.
Among the multinationals, HP continued to lead the market with 6.3 per cent share of total PC shipments in first half of 2007, followed by Dell and Acer.
The X86 server segments dominated the market during this period and experienced a growth of 7.7 per cent year-on-year, followed by the desktop and notebook segments. However, for the rest of 2007 and 2008, the portable segment is expected to lead overall PC market growth. This expectation is fuelled by the introduction of the Intel PC Classmate Programme in first half of 2007, which will drive procurement of notebooks from the education sector in upcoming quarters.
Apart from this, the adoption of notebooks from the home segment is also on the rise in the country.
In the application segments, the large enterprises, especially in the telecom, banking and finance sectors continued to be the largest procurers of IT solutions in the market, registering an annual growth of 21 per cent, followed by the government and medium enterprises.
The study said the grey and refurbished markets have continued to flourish substantially after the GST imposition and affected branded machine sales in Pakistan.
According to channel partners, around 15-20 per cent increase was seen in the grey market business in the past few quarters and this trend is expected to gain momentum in the future.
The negative spiralling effect created by unfriendly government policies, is expected to continue in the upcoming few quarters. Springboard Research also expects the second half of 2007 and beginning of 2008 to be politically turbulent.
Considering the current market scenario and political climate, Springboard forecasts a marginal growth for 2007. Nevertheless, from the fourth quarter of 2007 onwards (Oct-Nov), the market is expected to start picking up, as the Intel PC Classmate programme will perk up the portable market in the country. Pakistan’s government and large enterprises also expected to continue with their automation and IT up-gradation programmes.
The Springboard Research service tracks PC/Server market developments in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan on a quarterly basis and contacts IT resellers, vendors, component suppliers and end-users at the local and regional level for the research.
Founded in 2004, Springboard Research serves the needs of its clients globally through offices in the United States, Australia, Singapore and Japan, as well as from global research centres in India, Pakistan and Morocco.