According to IDC, PC shipments in Russia in the second quarter of 2013 continued their steep decline, with volume slipping by 37.3% on year to a total of 2.47 million units. The notebook market suffered a contraction of 45.3% on year to 1.69 million units shipped, while the desktop market had a less pronounced fall, down 8.2% to 785,000 units.
"The second quarter continued to be impacted by large inventory volumes in the market, as most vendors, retailers, and distributors focused on stock reduction," said Natalia Vinogradova, research analyst with IDC Russia. "The increasing shift in demand for tablets and smartphones is also a key factor in the slowdown of the portable PC market, as well as continued economic pressures in the business sector," she added.
The tablet market in Russia grew by 156% on year, reaching a volume of 1.95 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2013. "This growth mainly stemmed from the home segment, fuelled by the availability of a large variety of low-cost tablets," explained Vinogradova. "Android tablets will post a significant increase in market share in 2013, thanks to the increasing number of tablets using Android OS priced at US$100 and less."
The market will continue to register a shift from traditional notebooks to tablets until 2017, according to IDC's latest forecast. By the end of 2013, the Russian tablet market will total 7.68 million units, compared to 6.87 million notebook shipments; by the end of 2014, the shift will be more evident - 9.24 million tablets versus 6.98 million notebooks. Traditional PC vendors, although initially banking on the Windows 8 platform to grow their market share of tablets, are now also pushing their Android devices at competitive prices in order to grab share from the low-cost tablet vendors.
"Android rules the roost among smartphone operating systems in Russia," noted Simon Baker, program manager for mobile handsets at IDC. "It is installed on close to three-quarters of all smartphones sold here, and, when purchasing a new tablet, many consumers are keen to have the same OS on both."
