Commercial shipments of PCs and tablets across Asia Pacific reached 19.2 million units in 2017, representing seven per cent year-over-year growth following strong public sector demand.
According to IDC research findings, such growth was predominantly driven by PC and tablet product categories, spanning desktops and notebooks, as well as slates and detachables.
Looking ahead, the public sector is expected to drive growth in the traditional PC market for 2018, particularly in India and the Philippines where large tenders will be held.
Ongoing migration to Windows 10 by enterprises in the financial, manufacturing and resources verticals will also help to support the commercial market in the region.
Meanwhile, digital transformation efforts in the distribution and services, manufacturing and resources verticals will continue to fuel the growth in the tablet market.
“The education sector remains one of the most robust verticals in the commercial space,” IDC Asia Pacific research manager, Maciek Gornicki, said.
“As governments, particularly in emerging markets, embark on digital transformation, investment in IT infrastructure will continue. This means deployment of devices in the education sector across the region will continue in the coming years as well.”
Delving deeper, the commercial traditional PC market posted five per cent increase in 2017, boosted by several large education projects completed across the region.
Specific to sectors, education shipments grew 33 per cent in total with ELCOT alone contributing to 550,000 units in India last year, while the market was further supported by smaller education tenders, bringing the overall growth in the education sector to 108 per cent.
In Australia and New Zealand, which are traditionally robust education markets, further expansion of Chromebook devices continued.
As a result, Chrome is now the largest-used OS in the education sector in New Zealand and the second largest in Australia, in terms of shipments in 2017.
Aside from education, shipments for Singapore Government’s sector grew, boosted by demand following GovTech Singapore’s Internet Separation campaign - the campaign mandates Government agency employees to be equipped with a secondary device for Internet access.
Also, the Indonesia education market posted 157 per cent increase in 2017, as the market benefited from the rollout of the Computer Based National Exam initiative, among other projects.
“With governments and more businesses embracing digital transformation, the tablet becomes a popular choice to help achieve enterprise mobility,” IDC Asia Pacific research manager, Peggy Cheung, added.
“Small- and medium-sized businesses who have budget concerns will drive steady growth in commercial demand, with tablets offering a good balance of mobility and price.”
