Strong growth potential of Philippine computer market cited

SALES IN THE COUNTRY of personal computers are projected to hit $3.9 billion by 2014 from $2.4 billion this year, driven by rising incomes, continued strength of business process outsourcing (BPO), state programs to computerize public services and schools, as well as resumption of system upgrades firms had put off amid the economic slump.

London-based Business Monitor International (BMI) said in a statement that growth prospects of the Philippine market for personal computers are big, since currently relatively low computer penetration among the population “offers correspondingly high growth potential, particularly with support from government and other information and communication technology programs.”

BMI sees spending for such hardware posting a compounded annual growth rate of 12% for 2010-2014, “driven by rising incomes and personal computer penetration.” This year, BMI said such spending will be around 7% more than the 2009 spending of about $25 per capita.

“Wage [increases] for civil servants in the 2010 budget should help boost consumer spending, while enterprise spending should be boosted by upgrades delayed from 2009,” the statement read. “The business process outsourcing industry, which accounts for around 30% of IT spending, continues to grow. Surveys last year indicated that many of the Philippines’ BPO executives felt that the impact of the global economic crisis had not significantly slowed expansion.”

BMI also cited programs of the government to provide public schools with computers and require agencies to provide e-services to the public.

The study noted that multinational vendors have themselves taken notice of prospects outside Metro Manila. It noted that companies like Lenovo and Toshiba have been marketing products outside Metro Manila, while IBM launched in Cebu just last January its second Philippine-based global delivery center. — ENJD