KUALA LUMPUR: IDC Market Research (M) Sdn Bhd said the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) today will mostly impact the PC market, among other IT devices. 

IDC Malaysia PC market analyst Ng Juan Jin said the new tax system will result in a 10% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) decline in PC shipments in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15).

“Both consumer and commerical spending is expected to slow down significantly and the market will take a few months to adapt to the new tax, but should return to normal by mid-2015,” Ng told a media briefing yesterday.

He noted that the current situation of the PC market in Malaysia does not appear to be positive, and forecast that PC units shipped for the market here will remain flat at 2.2 million in 2015. The figure, he added, is poised to decline at an average rate of 1.3% year-on-year from 2016 to 2019.

However, Ng expects PCs to still be a significant player in the IT hardware market, as new PC form factors or its physical size and shape are regularly introduced in the market, such as hybrid and convertible PCs.

For the smartphone and tablet markets, IDC Malaysia also expects a small dip in sales post-GST, but there should still be a positive growth for smart devices in 2015, despite the new tax.

“Driven by demand, smartphones will remain the dominant smart device with a forecast growth of 27%, while tablets will grow by 3% in Malaysia,” said IDC Malaysia market analyst for client devices Jensen Ooi.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 1, 2015.