Gartner: supply and demand disparity in the used PC market
According to Gartner's market researchers, despite worldwide demand for used PCs outstripping supply, only 44 per cent of all available second hand devices on the market find new owners. They also concluded that only a fifth of used PCs in industrialised countries intended for continued use end up on the market in developing countries. Analysts see high customs fees and transportation costs as the obstacle.
Gartner defined used PCs as devices that have been used for at least three months by their initial user. Gartner analyst Meike Escherich explained in a report that, in principle, these computers offered dealers a good money-making opportunity with margins that were potentially even higher than those that can be earned on new devices, but that the market was very fragmented. At the same time, he pointed out that laws requiring stringent environmental and privacy standards placed smaller dealers at a disadvantage to the larger ones, and that this was all taking place in a market already under pressure from new, low-cost mini notebooks.
(trk)
