After the 2020 boom, suppliers hope that this year the volume of sales fall still growing and with a firm demand trend. And prepare to face with enough offer.

Por Rodolfo Pollini

In 2020 they had their first moment of explosion, for the pandemic, which led to the market to grow above what the demand claimed to face the COVID and its consequence on the teleworking. With a year that still predicts growth, the notebooks are not expected to reach the market levels last year but half, a result that still continues to excite the players. The scenario, put in numbers, will depend largely on the value of the official exchange rate: if it increases, prices increase and the same occurs with the parallel exchange rate.

Miguel Ángel Castro, PS Category Manager, HP Latin America, said the notebooks has the possibility of continuing designing equipment that accompanies hybrid work. "The Home Office is still implemented by most companies, so the demand in HP was on the rise in recent years," he said. “In 2022 we will continue listening to our consumers to bring them to cutting -edge technology. This year the consumer notebook market is expected to represent about 65% of the total number of computers in Argentina, it grows around 20% against the previous year. It remains an important growth, but less than those presented in 2020 and 2021, of 60% and 38% respectively.

Which is better?
"For consumers it is not easy to choose the notebook they need, since technology changes very fast and they are not in details. It is very common that they choose one with more capacity than they need or in reverse. In our region this problem has a peculiarity: people tend to buy‘ cheap ’in terms of money and not the benefit. It has to do with the economic reality of the region." (Sonia Lan, MSI)

"We see that there will be a replacement of products, because in the picos of demand for the pandemic, especially in 2020, computers were sold that were not what users needed for their work," said Matías Benz, Marketing Manager of Asus. "We believe that this year the demand will fall a little, about 15%, but we must consider that we come from very special numbers for everything that happened. The result will continue to be good for the Argentine market and we will return to similar levels and even a little better than those of 2019, renewing a park that for 2020 and 2021 was quite late."

From Lenovo, Diego García, Manager of SMEs and Canales, acknowledged that the pandemic accelerated processes that were expected for 4 or 5 years later. " 1% and now we return to approximately 2017 levels. We are in a stabilization process, with less production problems, the offer is still good and we believe that 2022 will be a good year for the industry. ”

"In 2021, the scarcity of certain components made sale planning in our region difficult," Sonia Lan NB LATAM contributed in MSI. "Despite this, MSI not only achieved the objective planned for Latam, but we exceed it 3 times. In 2022 the shortage will continue, at least in the first quarters. We believe that demand will continue to be greater than the supply, especially high -performance notebooks, the segment in which MSI is dominant."

Know how to choose
"We consider it extremely important that the consumer knows if his team will be destined to work, to carry out research and academic works, to play when it is a Gamer user or if he will be the ally of the smallest of the house. Our channel has various training to be informed and provide the client with as much customized attention as possible." (Miguel Ángel Castro, HP)

Consumers and consumption

Analyzing the behavior of demand, Benz argued that among middle class consumers to medium high, the intention of taking advantage of the fact that in Argentina, and to real values, technology is not expensive. "The person who can buy with dollars ticket finds very convenient prices for a mixture of factors, such as the import dollar to the official exchange rate added to the availability of financing and special promotions," he said. "The photo of the one who traveled and bought better abroad, today we see it backwards: for the same money that a low -end equipment is purchased outside you can buy a mid -range or even high range in Argentina."

"We are seeing a change in buyer's behavior," said Garcia. “Before the pandemic the products of lower cost, or with more basic configurations, they had more volume, but with the pandemia who had to buy bought what was there and where there were fewer production problems it was in the models of the mid -range up. demand. ”

Lenovo and Los Canales
Lenovo sells totally for the distribution channels, with a partners strategy and investing to give them tools and resources, such as Lenovo 360, a program that encompasses the company's solutions and devices. "We started looking beyond the sale of a particular product, because a notebook requires a different added service and added value in hardware -associated solutions," Garcia said.

Lan said that in Argentina the gap between demand and supply is maintained and that generates optimism for the business for 2022: “The demand for notebooks in Argentina and in the region has always been, before, during and, surely also in the post pandemic. The world has already passed the transition of desktop PC to PC Mobile but this phenomenon is not yet complete in our region and Argentina continues on that path. Delay in Latam is the price factor. need to equip yourself with new technology. ”

"In HP we think it is essential to offer diversity of products," Castro said. "We seek to provide different price and design options and characteristics, so that users can choose the product that best suits their requirements, preferences and resources. We understand that economic resources are not the same for all consumers, but we try to meet all needs."

Katana is the entrance line that MSI maintains in Argentina with enough stock. This year they will bring the Raider Ge76 line, with the new Intel 12A and Nvidia platforms.

Prices, nothing less

The price (of everything) is in Argentina an inevitable faithful of the balance. As Lan points out, they are also the beat and the rhythm to which technology is renewed. No one rules out the desire to have the last configuration. The issue is to be able to pay it. And also know how to choose it.

ASUS justifies having higher prices than competition for the advanced configurations offered in the Argentine market. "Users, when they compare for a price, do not know exactly if they are buying the appropriate configuration, which may be less or in some cases greater than their needs spending more than necessary," Benz said. "The uninformed, or little informed consumer does not know how to compare between a Core i3, i5 or i7 and can even be facing a Core i7 but eighth generation, which we have not brought to Argentina for two years."

"The global volatility of prices is reflected in those devices that had greater global demand during pandemic, such as smartphones and notebooks," Castro said. “We know that taxes, inflation and the change of the local currency are the main ingredients that determine the high costs in Argentina. According to a ranking prepared in 2021 by Grover, the company for rent of electronic consumer products, Argentina is one of the countries that is at a disadvantage for the purchase of electronic products.

Lan emphasized the costs and considered that despite the inconveniences of transport the costs of MSI Notebooks were affected very little. "Being high -end computers, transport does not affect the final cost," he said. "This year we do see some increase because there is the technology update factor and there is considerable advance in performance, compared to the previous generation. In Argentina it is difficult to say if technology is expensive or cheap, but we believe that if consumers can buy in official channels, at the end of the day it would be more economical than bringing it from outside, due to the difference in the guarantee."

Chromebook on low, but growing: According to IDC in his blog, in the fourth quarter of 2021 Chromebook shipments decreased by 63.6 % year -on -year, although they achieved a growth of 13.5 % for the full year.

"Much of Chromebook's initial demand was satisfied in the primary markets such as the United States and Europe and this caused a slowdown in general shipments," said JITESH Ubrani, research manager of Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers of IDC. "However, Chromebooks demand in emerging markets experienced continuous growth during the past year. The offer has been unusually scarce for Chromebooks, since component shortages has led suppliers to prioritize Windows machines due to their highest price labels, which further restricts Chromebook shipments worldwide."

Supply and logistics

The main factor that unbalanced the gap between demand and supply was the impossibility of continuing to produce, among the closures, the low availability of labor and also the problems to have sufficient logistics. Today's photo shows a quieter situation, but without even returning to pre pandemic. There are delays, but containers are achieved although with some surcharge. The Supply is stabilizing although resorting to strategies such as the one used by ASUS, which in some models, and in the absence of HD screens, made an UPgrade to HD without changing the price to bring more equipment.

Garcia recalled that although in the last two years there were problems with component supply, and not only in computer science, that tends to normalize. "There is more production and by the middle of this year the situation would be 100%restored," he said. "The worst has happened."

"Pandemia challenged all industries," Castro defined. “The technological suppliers did not have planned a sales projection or a demand of large volume as it happened, so we were affected in lack of stock and components. We continue working to meet this missing availability of computers in different segments and prices ”.

The offer and brands

ASUS maintains the commitment to bring to the country the same teams that are launched and marketed abroad. "This allows us to be at the technological avant -garde in Argentina and that is why we were the first company to bring Intel's latest generation," Benz said. Intel Argentina launched the tenth generation in August 2020 and in December of that same year we brought the 11th generation, technology that Intel announced only in March of the following year. The same happened with AMD 5000 series; When AMD knew that we were going to bring her, they advanced the launch and did it with us.

HP destaca la Spectre x360 14” (14-ea0510la), liviana, convertible, con duración de batería de 20 horas y opciones de seguridad mejoradas como una cámara de infrarrojos FHD integrada y el lector de huellas e interruptor de apagado de la cámara para garantizar la seguridad y privacidad de los datos. La HP Pavilion x360 14-dy0502la, es una laptops con estilo audaz a precio accesible. Liviana, con cámara HP Wide Vision de ángulo ancho, experiencia de sonido HP Audio Boost y sintonización personalizada de los expertos de Bang & Olufsen PLAY. Cuenta con 8 horas de batería y la 8a generación de Procesadores Intel Core i5.

The Lenovo portfolio covers from the need for an SME with 3 or 4 people to companies of 500 users. They offer configurations for niches that consume line topped products and configurations defined for the wholesaler and reallers. The V series, is ideal for small businesses and professionals, with configurations from ICORE 3 to ICORE7. It is followed by the Thinkbook, for medium -sized companies and with more advanced design. On the ThinkPad line the models E, L and T the most recognized product of the brand appear. In the range of range are the X1 and the X1 yoga.

Katana is the entrance line that MSI maintains in Argentina with enough stock. This year they will bring the Raider Ge76 line, with the new Intel 12A and Nvidia platforms.