This study includes market and sector sizes, foreign brands verses domestic, printer sales, market shares, pricing strategies, marketing and forecasts. Full profiles of the major domestic manufacturers are included.
China’s computer industry, like those of most state centralised economies, derived originally from the military. It was not until the 1980s that non-military involvement in the computer industry was begun. The state formed a number of small manufacturers into Great Wall Computer Group and a national industry was born. The policy of opening up the economy instituted by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 opened the market to foreign competition in a way not seen before in the PRC. From 1990 competition in the industry has been fierce. The domestic industry now has little state protection and lost market share. Additionally, the appearance of leading international brands in the Chinese market was described as ‘a wake-up call’ to domestic manufacturers to analyse their strategies more closely.