Computers & Peripherals

In 2Q 2008, shipments of China's MFPs reached 523.1 thousand, down sequentially 7.8% over 1Q08. MFP revenues reached 806 million Yuan, down 13.3% over 1Q08. All vendors experienced declines, but Lexmark, Panasonic, and Konica-Minolta experienced more severe drops of over 24%.

Source: CCID Consulting, july 2008

Reasons for the declines are as follows:

1. The Chinese Yuan appreciation has lead to increased costs for enterprises. Weaker firms have not survived, while existing firms have had to cut expenditures. MFPs are one of the expenditures that have been negatively impacted. MFP shipments have been down 4% YOY.
2. Frequency of price changes have hurt consumer purchases, and have caused them to adopt a "wait and see" approach. CCID Consulting's surveys show that dealers were also impacted by inflation and resultant, frequent price changes.
3. The Sichuan earthquake on May 12th impacted 18 cities in the province, plus areas of Gangsu, Shanxi, and Chongqing. Damaged areas covered 100 thousand square kilometers, affecting 10 million people. However, there were ripple effects of traffic, communications, power, and life/work interruptions throughout China, with a noticeable drop in sales activity in May.

For vendors, 2Q08 was slow for all, but the sales declines of Lexmark, Panasonic and Konica-Minolta were as much self-inflicted.

Look towards 3Q08, CCID Consulting believes the outlook to be brighter, due to China's summer vacation promotional activities and the governments' economic policies adjustments.

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Unless otherwise specified, all information provided is sourced from CCID Consulting.

Ó 2008 CCID Consulting Co., Ltd.