Springboard Research Finds Tremendous Growth in Bangladesh’s Portable PC Market

Singapore - March 30, 2007 - Springboard Research, a leading innovator in the IT Market Research industry, today announced that according to its Asia Emerging Countries (AEC) Quarterly Tracker, the Bangladeshi portable market led the PC/Server market in 2006 with a growth rate of 49.6%, followed by the desktop and X86 server segments. Aggressive pricing strategies from multi-national corporations (MNCs), is credited for the tremendous growth in the portable sector.

Overall, the Bangladesh PC/Server market generated growth of 19.2% in 2006 with 193,600 units shipped as compared to 162,400 units in 2005. Continued healthy economic performance, increased investments from large corporations, especially from the telecom and financial industries, helped drive the upswing in the PC/Server market.

“The Bangladesh PC market offers immense growth opportunities for both domestic and foreign vendors, but as always this growth is susceptible to the political environment,” said Manish Bahl, Springboard’s Manager of AEC Research. “In the last one year, Springboard has seen an increase in the amount of investment from the multinational IT vendors in the country, who have aggressively expanded their operations and launched new products. However, if the current political crisis continues to dominate the country’s economic and business environment, it might lead to a shift in international vendor focus from Bangladesh to other countries in the region,” added Bahl.

Among MNCs, HP led the market with a 10.5% share of PC shipments in 2006, followed by Dell and Lenovo. The leading local vendors, Daffodil and Flora, contributed a combined 5.8% share to total PC shipments in the same period.

Despite the strong performance of the portable segment in 2006, Springboard Research’s outlook assumes political tension will affect future PC/Server market growth. With the transference of political power to a caretaker government in October 2006, a substantial decrease was seen in the government’s IT spending during the fourth quarter. Government spending is expected to further slow in the first half of 2007. As such, Springboard expects the market to grow just 16.6% in 2007.

About the Asia Emerging Countries Tracker

The Asia Emerging Countries Tracker is a Springboard Research service that tracks PC/Server market developments in Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan on a quarterly basis. The methodology employed for this service leverages interviews with IT resellers, vendors, component suppliers and end-users at the local and regional level.

About Springboard Research

Springboard Research’s core values are value, integrity and insight. Led by a team of dynamic industry experts, Springboard Research provides its customers with high value IT market research that helps them identify new market opportunities, growth engines and innovative ways to go to market. As a result, Springboard’s clients lead rather than follow market trends. Not bound by legacy, Springboard’s cutting-edge research model leverages its offshore research centers, the Internet, and an increased use of technology as engines of innovation to deliver unique research value. Provided as an alternative to traditional IT market research, Springboard’s reports deliver data and knowledge in a more usable and interactive format for our clients. Springboard Research works with the largest IT companies in the world in the software, services, hardware, and telecommunications sectors.

Founded in 2004, Springboard Research serves the needs of its clients globally through offices in the United States, Singapore and Japan as well as global research centers in India and Pakistan.

For more information regarding Springboard Research, please visit www.springboardresearch.com.

Media Contacts

Bhoorender Panwar, Manager- Sales & Marketing
Springboard Research
91-11-4160-4886
bpanwar@springboardresearch.com

Manish Bahl- Manager – Custom Research
Springboard Research
91 981068-1717
mbahl@springboardresearch.com

Dane Anderson, CEO & EVP of Research
Springboard Research
65-6236-7682
danderson@springboardresearch.com