The Rand’s recent depreciation against other international currencies has resulted in much higher computer hardware prices in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Over the last two years, the ZAR\/USD exchange rate depreciated from R10.35\/USD<\/strong> to the current R15.15\/USD<\/strong>.<\/p>\n These higher South African prices have in turn resulted in local consumers not only purchasing less but also slower computers instead of high-end products.<\/p>\n The higher prices, especially in the laptop market, have resulted in a shift in consumer buying patterns.<\/p>\n John Geypen, Consumer Lead for PCs at HP, said entry-level Celeron-based notebooks made up 37% of notebooks sales in 2014. In 2015, this grew\u00a0to 47%.<\/p>\n Towards the end of 2015, this number crept up to as high as 50%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Conversely, in the high-end segment HP saw sales declining as more consumers bought entry-level products.<\/p>\n The higher price of\u00a0laptops and other computing products also means that the overall South African market has shrunk.<\/p>\n \u201cSales of notebooks in December 2014 totalled just short of 60,000 units, while December 2015 unit sales totalled just slightly more than 50,000 units<\/strong>,\u201d said Geypen.<\/p>\n While HP does not exclude product offerings because of the weak rand, the company limits the number of different options it has available.<\/p>\n \u201cThe market currently is not big or strong enough to support every different variation we have available within our product range,\u201d said Geypen.<\/p>\n Geypen said HP does its best to compensate for the weak rand by adding value to products, like creating bundles with accessories, software, and printers.<\/p>\n This article was republished with permission from MyBroadband<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Watch this developer play PC games on the PlayStation 4<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The biggest movie releases in South Africa this week<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
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