THE NUMBER of personal computers sold in Slovakia in 2012 decreased by 8.1 percent compared with the previous year. During the final quarter the Slovak PC market shrank by one fifth year-on-year, especially due to a 22 percent decline in notebook sales. The situation with desktop PCs was similar, the SITA newswire reported based on data provided by the IDC consultancy company.
“The low confidence of consumers in the economy and the reduced purchasing power of households affected by the persistently high unemployment rate were especially behind the weak market,” Petr Švagrovský, an analyst with the Czech and Slovak hardware market in IDC CEMA, said as cited by SITA. Moreover, once popular mini-notebooks are gradually disappearing from the market while tablets and smart phones are increasingly in competition with PCs.
“In spite of the increase in the sale of tablets, classic PCs, notebooks, desktops and all-in-one models remain at the top of user interest because they offer the highest level of data security and performance to corporate clientele, as well as top parameters to fans of video games and support for photo and video processing programs to households,” said Erika Lindauerová, the director of the PC division at HP Slovensko as cited by SITA. “Then they use tablets as supplementary mobile devices to notebooks or desktops.”
