Home IT Industry Stands StrongIn spite of the worldwide recession, China's IT industry witnessed a steady growth in the third quarter of the year thanks to strong domestic demands - and the increase may last for the rest of the year, according to a report by CCID Consulting Co Ltd."The growth just shows China's market is a highlight in the world in such a bad time," said Yang Tianxing, president of CCID Consulting, an authoritative IT market research firm close to the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), on Wednesday. According to the organization, the sales volume of China's computer market in the third quarter reached 65.8 billion yuan (US$7.96 billion), rising more than 18 per cent compared with the previous quarter, and 12 per cent over the same period last year. The hardware sector contributed 47.1 billion yuan (US$5.7 billion) to the total market, rising more than 18 per cent from the second quarter, while software and information services amounted to 7.9 billion yuan (US$955 million) and 11 billion yuan (US$1.33 billion), a rise of more than 20 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively. "The summer vacation for Chinese students played an important role in the growth of the market," said Zhang Hongfen, a senior researcher with CCID Consulting. Desktops and laptops, closely related with the rising demands during the vacation, rose by 35.7 per cent and 27.8 per cent respectively in the quarter ending on September 30, compared with the previous quarter. The improvement of computer performance and the varieties of replacements of computer products also promoted buyers to update their hardware and software. The proportion of sales of desktops in all computer sales dropped by 1.7 per cent to 91 per cent compared with the same period last year, while sales of laptops grew by 1.4 per cent to 6.7 per cent, CCID's report stated. Zhang predicted the sales revenues of the computer market would rise to 69.5 billion yuan (US$8.4 billion) in the fourth quarter, while that for the whole year would be 247.2 billion yuan (US$29.89 billion), 15 per cent higher than last year. Together with the computer market, telecommunications also remained at a comparatively high speed of growth, in spite of some signs of slowdown and uncertainties, according to CCID Consulting. In the first nine months of the year, Chinese telecommunications operators invested almost 140 billion yuan (US$17 billion) in the market. The revenue in the sector reached 258 billion yuan (US$31 billion), rising 12.5 per cent year-on-year. Deng Zhicheng, a senior telecommunications analyst with CCID Consulting, pointed out that, with China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the involvement of foreign operators will be a stimulus for infrastructure construction, while the opening of value-added telecommunications services will draw more than 3,000 domestic businesses, which will further expand the market. Source: China Daily |
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