Demand for secondary computers exceeds supply

AS worldwide demand for secondary computers exceeds supply, Africa and the Middle East (MEA) have emerged as the fastest growing regions in terms of demand for the gadgets.

“The demand for secondary PCs in emerging regions, such as Eastern Europe, MEA, Latin America and parts of Asia/Pacific, is likely to grow as pressure increases on developing countries to accept used PCs as a viable technology solution for more basic computing tasks such as internet surfing and Web e-mail,” says analyst Meike Escherich.

He added, “The emergence of the new ultralow-cost mini-notebooks could threaten the refurbished market and could see a number of users leave the secondary PC market and opt for a simpler but new notebook.

“Nevertheless, we expect that most buyers of used PCs will prefer a higher-specification A-branded PC over a basic mini-notebook. Also in times of uncertainty and recession, we expect replacements will slow down
with demand increasing and supplying decreasing.”

A secondary-market PC is one that has been used for more than three months by its primary or initial user and then passed on to a secondary user.

“The secondary PC market offers great opportunity to specialised intermediaries, resellers or vendors, but it is a highly fragmented and competitive market. Legislation tends to be more general, focusing on the
environment, privacy, and how a company must take care of a person’s non-public information.

“It is an opportunistic market and is highly fragmented, with tens of thousands of players involved.

Unfortunately, an increasing number of laws based on the producer responsibility principle means that small players find it harder to compete with large vendors, which all need to resell a certain percentage of their secondary PCs,” Escherich said

ITNewsAfrica.com