PC market seen growing 56%

The Argentine PC market should grow to 1.2 million new units this year, up 56% compared to 726,000 sold in 2004, and breaking 2000's record, according to a study by local consultant Trends Consulting. "This is the first time we expect to surpass the million PCs sold in one year. It is an interesting number because PCs also drive growth for value added services and also internet connections," Trends analyst Eduardo Tobis told BNamericas. The 1.2 million PC forecast includes sales under the state-run Mi PC program, through which the Argentine government expects to increase the number of PCs sold to 2 million units in the next five years and 200,000 units this year. "Our forecast without any types of promotion plan is to reach 935,370 units sold this year, including desktops and laptops. The residential and Soho markets will drive this year's growth," according to Tobis. The Argentine government is also planning to launch in July the "Pymes en la red" program, aiming to increase IT penetration among SMEs. "The government still needs to decide on the equipment configuration but if the program targets SMEs, we should see more desktops built with Intel Pentium 4 and leave behind Celeron configurations," he added. If the government chooses a Pentium 4 configuration, Tobis expects brand PCs to increase their share in the local market. Currently, 81.9% of PCs sold in Argentina are locally assembled desktops. In Argentina there is one computer for every eight homes, and nearly 4 million internet users including those who go online through internet centers.