Work-at-home trend boosts demand for PCs
A trend for Hong Kong people to work from home is fuelling strong demand for personal computers, especially laptops, according to a survey on consumer technology.
ACNielsen Asia-Pacific president Frank Martell said 27 per cent of respondents to the poll indicated they intended to buy a PC in the next six months.
The market was being driven by a rising number of people working or running businesses from home or using the Internet as an educational tool, he said. This has made faster Internet access important to 90 per cent of users.
'In Hong Kong, purchase intent is focused in particular on the newest, state-of-the-art technology,' Mr Martell said.
'The current must-have in consumer technology is the notebook PC [30 per cent own one and 17 per cent will replace or upgrade in the next six months].
'This is in strong contrast to desktop PCs [90 per cent ownership and 11 per cent plan to buy].'
There is also heavy demand for personal digital assistants, with 22 per cent ownership and 19 per cent wanting to buy one.
Handheld MP3 players were owned by 21 per cent of respondents. Fifteen per cent intend to purchase.
Digital cameras enjoyed the second strongest demand, with 36 per cent ownership and 25 per cent indicating they would buy.
Demand for mobile phones remains strong, but ownership of WAP or Internet-enabled phones (36 per cent) still lags behind Japan (60 per cent).
Mobile users are motivated to upgrade their phone by the promise of longer battery life (61 per cent), attractive new design and smaller size (47 per cent) and larger displays (33 per cent).
Although the number of owners of portable DVD players is small in Hong Kong (four per cent) demand is strong, with nine per cent of people intending to buy one in the next six months.
Regionally, the largest growth in consumer entertainment has been in portable DVD players, mobile MP3 phones, and LCD flat-screen computer monitors.
Overall brand leaders were Sony, Nokia and Microsoft, with consumers asked to rank the products according to the latest technology, user-friendliness and appealing style.
PC brand leaders were Apple, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Sony led the way for consumer entertainment and Nokia for mobile phones.
The online poll surveyed 8,000 Internet users across the Asia-Pacific region, including 1,000 in Hong Kong.
Graphic: BUY15XGET
