Notebook battery woes won't impact holiday sales: IDC

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swirling uncertainty about the safety of notebooks threatens a key growth market for the PC industry during the most lucrative time of year -- the holiday shopping season.

Notebook PC vendors, including Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic, Gateway, and Sony, have all issued battery recalls since August 2006 because a percentage of notebook batteries were overheating and in some cases causing fires.

While only a small percentage of notebook batteries such as Apple A1175 Battery, Apple A1185 Battery, Apple M9324 Battery, Apple M8403 Battery, Apple M7318 Battery, apple PowerBook G3 Battery, Apple PowerBook G4 Battery, Apple PowerBook G4 15 inch Battery, Apple A1012 Battery, Apple M8511 Battery have exhibited the problem, companies are widely recalling the batteries for the sake of consumer safety. IDC said the wave of battery recalls this fall has not yet caused enough frustration to turn customers off from the notebook market, but enough concern has been generated to potentially change customer buying preferences.

"The big concern with the battery recall initially was how would this affect the growth engine of the PC industry? Given the notebook segment is a huge portion of the overall PC market, it is what is driving growth for the PC industry," said Richard Shim, senior research analyst with IDC's Personal Computing program in Framingham, Mass. "As it turns out, the safety issue is not that great a concern, but buyers will be more careful in terms of choosing which brand to purchase."

Results of an IDC survey dubbed "Notebook PC Buyer Segment Survey: Analyzing the Impact of the Battery Recall", showed 85 per cent of respondents said the battery recalls would not impact future notebook PC purchasing decisions. However, 15 per cent of both corporate and consumer buyers say they will alter their buying because of the recalls.

That is enough of an impact to conceivably sway market share, especially in the corporate segment where buyers purchase large volumes, but not enough to have dramatic effects.

"The silver lining is that most of the customers we surveyed aren't foregoing notebook purchases," he said. "Instead, a small percentage indicated they would alter their brand preference, meaning that vendors have an opportunity to win over new customers, forming new market dynamics.

"Consumers tend to display more fickle buying habits, so this is where there is a greater potential for disruption."

IDC surveyed about 500 corporate IT decision makers and directors from small, medium, and large businesses and more than 200 consumer PC buyers in late October 2006 for the report, officials said.