On February 27th, the statistics released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that China’s computer industry as a whole was in a downturn last year. Microcomputer output and exports continued to decline, and overall industry efficiency growth slowed. Due to the replacement of mobile devices, consumers’ interest in buying desktops and laptops has been greatly reduced, and the overall market, especially the consumer machine market, has slumped faster than expected.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2014, China produced a total of 351 million microcomputers, a decrease of 0.8%, of which 227 million were notebook computers, down 5.5%. The computer industry achieved a sales value of 2,272.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.9%, which was lower than the growth rate of the electronic information manufacturing industry by 7.4 percentage points, which was lower than the 2.6 percentage points in the previous year.
On the export side, according to statistics from the Customs, the export value of microcomputers reached US$114.78 billion, which was a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%, and the decline was 1.2% higher than the previous year. Among the microcomputers exported, the proportion of tablet computers rose to 53.8%, but the proportion of exports accounted for only 28.6%; the share of desktop computers dropped to 2.8%, which was a further 0.2% drop from the following year.
In the microcomputer market, the commercial computer market is still the main force. Due to lack of innovation, the personal computer field has not been recognized by the market. Coupled with the rise of smart phones and wearable devices, it is an impact on the personal computer market.
As for the outlook for the 2015 computer industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology predicts that the demand for the PC industry has been in a slow decline, and the demand for new PCs has weakened. However, the annual demand in emerging markets is still rising, which will undoubtedly benefit the growth of the global PC industry in the next phase. In addition, future IoT technologies based on smart wearable devices, ultra-high-definition smart TVs, and smart home products will also provide new opportunities and solutions for the consumer PC industry.