By Jim Woods and Andy GolubBusiness PC buying is limping toward the new year.
We are seeing a reduction in corporate PC buying plans for the next quarter for the fourth-consecutive survey. And the percentage of companies planning to buy PCs is now at its lowest level in nearly two years, according to ChangeWave's latest survey on corporate PCs.
The survey of 1,926 corporate IT buyers was completed Nov. 12.
As the following chart shows, just 67% of corporate IT buyers said their company plans to buy laptops in the next quarter. That number is down one point from August 2008, and nine points from a year ago.
Similarly, just 64% said their company plans to buy desktops -- down three points from August and nine points from a year ago.
So, what do these findings mean for two of the major PC manufacturers --
Dell (DELL) and
Apple (AAPL)?
No Surprises For DellIn early November, we found a surprising uptick for 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.
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 two points for Dell since our previous survey in August.
Apple Holds Its Share of the Corporate Market Apple -- 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, with Apple's laptop (7%) and desktop (5%) share unchanged compared with the previous survey in August.
In other Apple results, 6% of respondents reported that their company is increasing its first-quarter purchase plans for Apple computers, which is the same as in our previous survey.
Another 17% said their company is considering Apple for future purchases -- down one point 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 estimated that 19% of their company's workforce would choose to use a Mac if it were left up to the employees themselves, while only 6% currently use a Mac.
It'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:
Even though Apple owns a relatively small 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 company is very satisfied with their Mac computers.
Dell is the next closest competitor with a notably lower 35% very satisfied rating.
Andy Golub is an Associate Director of Research for the ChangeWave Alliance Research Network. Jim Woods is a Senior Editor for ChangeWave. The Research Network is a group of 20,000 highly qualified business, technology and medical professionals -- as well as early adopter consumers -- who work in leading companies of select industries. ChangeWave surveys its network members weekly on a range of business and consumer topics, and converts the information into a series of proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports.
