24% PC penetration among small business in the Philippines

In my talks, I always mention the low penetration of computers in the Philippines. However, we are not alone. This the same case in four of the most populous countries of Asia i.e. India, China, Indonesia and the Philippines. According to a study conducted by the New York-headquartered Access Markets International (AMI) Partners Inc, PC penetration among small businesses in the Philippines is pegged at 24%.

There are many ways that PC penetration can be improved. This includes making ICT affordable to SMEs. It is important for PC, software, training, website, e-commerce development providers, among others to offer easy to pay terms. Help is available to make this happen by IT vendors through the SME-FIT program or Financing for Information Technology Build-Up for SMEs.

Slow PC Growth

There are many questions in relation to the number of computers in the Philippines. In the year 2000, there's an estimated 1.113 million computers in the country according to IDC. By the end of 2005, vendors gave a rough figure of 2 million in households, businesses, Internet cafe, schools, and government.