By Paul Carton
Business PC buying continues to deteriorate as we head into 2009, according to ChangeWave's latest survey on corporate PCs.
For the fourth-consecutive survey, we are seeing a reduction in corporate PC buying plans for the next quarter. Importantly, the percentage of companies planning to buy PCs is now at its lowest level in nearly two years.
The survey of 1,926 corporate IT buyers was completed November 12th.
As the following chart shows, just 67% of corporate IT buyers say their companies plan on buying laptops next quarter. That number is down 1 pt from August 2008, and 9 pts from a year ago. Similarly, just 64% say their companies plan to buy desktops - down 3 pts from August and also 9 pts from a year ago.
So, what do these findings mean for two of the major PC manufacturers – Dell and Apple?
In early November, we found a surprising uptick for Dell (DELL) in our consumer spending survey, but the news remains disappointing on the corporate side. Both desktop and laptop planned purchases have fallen to record lows for Dell going forward.
Considering the corporate market accounts for about 80% of Dell's PC business, these numbers don't bode well for the company going forward.
Planned desktop (29%) and laptop (28%) purchases are both down 2 pts for Dell since our previous survey in August.
Apple Holds Its Share of Corporate Market
Apple (AAPL) - which has a much smaller corporate PC presence - is holding its share within a tight spending climate, and is the clear leader in customer satisfaction.
Planned corporate Mac purchases remain stable going forward - with Apple's laptop (7%) and desktop (5%) share unchanged compared to the previous survey in August.
In other Apple results, 6% of respondents report their companies are increasing their 1st Quarter purchase plans for Apple computers - the same as in our previous survey.
Another 17% say their companies are considering Apple for future purchases, down 1 pt from previously.
In sum, there is little change in Apple's corporate market share for the next 90 days.
Looking further out, however, there are positive signs pointing to long-term corporate growth opportunities for Apple Macs. In particular, corporate respondents estimate that one-in-five (19%) of their companies' workforces would choose to use a Mac if it were left up to the employees themselves – even though only 6% currently use a Mac.
There's no secret why so many more employees would use Macs if they could. A quick glance at the corporate satisfaction ratings says it all:
So, even though Apple owns a relatively smaller share of the corporate PC market, it outperforms the rest of the industry by a wide margin in terms of customer satisfaction - with 58% of respondents saying their companies are Very Satisfied with their Mac computers.
Dell is the next closest competitor with a notably lower 35% Very Satisfied rating.
Jim Woods and Andy Golub co-wrote this article.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article summarizes the results of a recent ChangeWave survey. ChangeWave runs a research network of 20,000 business, technology and medical professionals -- as well as early adopter consumers -- who spend their everyday lives working on the front line of technological change. For more info on ChangeWave, or to sign up for real-time email alerts on the latest survey findings, click here.
