ChannelNews has been told that Dell is letting go their retail management with the Company set to focus on the B2B market.
A traditionasl online reseller Dell moved into Australian retail stores such as Officeworks and JB Hi Fi in an effort to lift consumer sales. According to insiders “The experiment” has not worked due to what Dell management claims is “excessive” demands by retailers for instore merchandising expenditure, coop dollar support and “higher margins.
JB Hi Fi will continue to sell the Dell owned Alienware brand of gaming PC’s.
Earlier this year Sony and Samsung exited the PC market in Australia this has forced retailers to restructure their PC operations with both Harvey Norman and JB Hi Fi working closely with Apple, Microsoft Google with their Chrome notebooks and HP. At Harvey Norman Acer and Asus are witnessing increased sales while Toshiba has seen a slump in sales.
LG who last year launched a notebook range at Harvey Norman is now looking to expand their PC range with new tablets, as well as a new range of notebooks. They are also tipped to be ranged at JB Hi Fi.
This year Toshiba has moved to cuddle up with Dick Smith after sales fell from 30% share at Harvey Norman to less than 14%. In New Zealand Toshiba has been relegated to fifth place behind the likes of Dell and Lenovo.
The Japanese Company has also moved to deliver a cheaper range of products as part of their move into Dick Smith in an effort to lift retail sales.
Late last year Toshiba also bailed out of the Australian TV market.
The brand that everyone is watching is Lenovo with JB Hi Fi keen to expand their range of Lenovo products. Lenovo the #1 PC brand in the world is a serious threat to HP who is still the #1 PC brand in Australia.
New IDC research is set to reveal that the decline in PC sales has “flattened out” and that sales could increase this year as manufacturers move to launch new hybrid models that are a combination of tablet screen and keyboard.
Microsoft who will have their Surface 3 on sale in August is set to spend millions on merchandising and marketing in an effort to grow sales of Windows based devices including their own.
Gartner is tipping that the PC market may see a revival of sorts this year as the transition from Windows XP and Windows 7 finally starts to flow through, according to research firm Gartner.
Gartner said the worldwide combined shipments of devices, including PCs, tablets and smartphones, will reach 2.4 billion units by the end of 2014, a 4.2 per cent increase on last year.
Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal said the general business replacement cycle will play a part in lessening the downward trend in 2014.
Tablet PC sales are falling with sales expected to slow down in 2014 to reach 256 million units, an increase of 23.9 per cent from 2013. Last year sales grew 48%.
In New Zealand where IDC recently released market share figures the PC market has grown 22%.
HP lead the New Zealand PC market in Q1 2014 with 37% of the market. Acer came in second with 18% share followed by Apple at 13%. The fourth and fifth places were occupied by Dell and Toshiba respectively.
IDC said that increased consumer spending, replacement of older PC’s that ran windows XP drove this strong shipment growth.
“Consumers opened their wallets for PC purchases on the back of an improving economic scenario as consumer confidence trended upwards and unemployment rate experienced steady declines,” said Arunachalam Muthiah, market analyst at IDC.
In the emerging Chromebook market Acer is the #1 brand in Australia followed by HP.
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