Ultrabook and gaming laptop segments continue to see growth in the first four months of 2015
Even as the saturated IT market in Taiwan continues on its general 
downtrend—a phenomenon which has been occurring for the past two years; pockets of growth are still existing to cushion the market’s soft performance. While demand for desktop computers and tablets are down, consumers are still buying mobile computers.
According to GfK point of sales tracking, January to April this year saw the total value of the IT market down by 19 percent when compared with the same timeframe last year; although sales volume was down by a lesser extent of 8 percent—indication that the market is cushioned somewhat by the lower price points.
“Taiwan’s IT market is considered mature, to a point where the penetration level of IT products has reached saturation level,” observed Cindy Li, Managing Director for GfK in Taiwan. “However, consumer’s attraction towards portability and convenience has been fuelling demand of mobile computers, in particular the ultrathin models.”
In terms of sales value, mobile computers, media tablets and desktop computers are the top three revenue generating products in Taiwan’s IT sector. While tablets and desktop computers reported significantly weakened sales volume by 36 and 25 percent respectively, mobile computers, also known as laptops, managed to buck this downtrend by instead selling 3 percent more in volume in the first four months of this year versus the same period last year,
Laptops are the biggest revenue contributor to the IT market, accounting for over two-fifth (42%) of the total pie this year. With the lowering demand seen in the two other major IT products, its value contribution has correspondingly increased by 5 percent from last year.
Within laptops, 15-inch models remain the dominant segment, while the 13-inch segment is trending up— still very much sought after by those who prefer thin, lightweight and portable laptops. Models which specially cater for gaming and entertainment purposes also reported robust performance, garnering over twofold increase in sales volume to reach 22,000 units in the first four months of this year.
“The mobile computing market in Taiwan is likely to sustain its positive performance achieved from the beginning of the year, thanks to the rising popularity of the ultrabook and entertainment models which are anticipated to continue fueling growth,” noted Li. “Moving forward into the second half of the year, this growing product segment will be taking an even larger slice of Taiwan’s IT sector to replace the shrinking desktop computing and tablets markets,” she concluded.
