"PC shipments totalled 1,293,892 units, reflecting year-on-year expansion of 10.9 percent. As result of falling prices, the PC market value only increased by 0.3 percent year-on-year to R9.36 billion [US$1.5 billion]," adds Fourie.

The desktop form factor recorded soft trends overall with a 9.8 percent year-on-year growth in Q4 2005 due to the shift towards portables and a slowing corporate refresh activity.

The x86 server market's growth rate declined from 50.9 percent in 2004 to 13.7 percent in 2005. This corresponds with the total server market, which came in at 13.8 percent year-on-year growth.

Government and education demand dwindled during the year due to the corporate refresh drawing to a close.

However, the home market made up for the poor performance in the other sectors with a 61.4 percent year-on-year growth.