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As Australian retailers ramp up their PC sales around the launch of the new Windows 8, consumers are sticking to low priced offerings as opposed to expensive Ultrabooks new research shows.Research Company IHS iSuppli claims only 6 percent of computer sales took place in the premium $1,000 or higher price band in 2012.
Also impacting sales is the consumer’s “infatuation” with tablets and smartphones the Company claims.
“Ultrabooks and other ultrathin computers have yet to make a dent on the market, and PCs as a whole have been sidelined by enormously popular devices such as tablets, like Apple’s iPad, and also by smartphones with near-PC-like functionalities,” said Peter Lin, senior analyst for computer platforms at IHS.
Mainstream and value-priced laptops and desktops evenly split the rest of the market with each garnering a 46.9 percent share.
IHS defines a value priced device at below $500 and one that uses older technology. Mainstream products are above this price threshold and are equipped with up to date technology, but not the highest performing. Premium is more than $1,000 and has the best technology and performance available.
IHS analysts said the domination of lower performing products is due, in part, to the fact that these still deliver considerable performance for a good price.
The ability to deliver higher and higher performance will increase going forward as computers with more powerful processors flood the market. IHS is forecasting that quad-core processors will be found in 179 million, or 59 percent, of all notebooks by 2016.
By that year all computers should be running a 64-bit operating system, finally pushing out the old 32-bit models.
Microsoft announced it is stopping support for Windows XP, a primary 32-bit OS, forcing millions of owners to upgrade.
