European PC market experiences growth despite low demand in Western region
While overall growth was boosted by demand in Eastern Europe, other markets remain in “wait and see” mode.
The PC market in EMEA exceeded expectations in the second quarter of 2012, with overall shipments up 9.1% compared with the same quarter last year, according to the latest figures from the IDC.
Central and Eastern Europe enjoyed strong growth of 25.1% year on year, helped along by aggressive strategies by vendors in the region. While Western Europe fared less favourably due to soft consumer demand, the market still saw improvement with a moderate growth of 4.1%. Shipments in The Middle East and Africa region saw a similarly disappointing trend, recording a modest growth of 4.8% year on year.
PC shipments in Western Europe were affected by both slow consumer and commercial demand as economic uncercainty affected business decisions and budgets, with the U.K and Germany suffering deceleration in consumer demand.
“While demand remained soft during the quarter, the market continued to benefit from a favourable year-on-year comparison versus Q211 last year, when sell-in was affected by the inventory buildup and led to a contraction of 8.4%, but was further boosted by an aggressive push from some vendors in the channel and a significant portion of sea-shipped products in transit for the third quarter,” said Karine Paoli, associate vice president, IDC EMEA systems and solutions infrastructrure group.
HP experienced the greatest number of PC shipments in the EMEA during the second quarter, followed by Acer, Asus and Dell.
While consumers have geared toward alternative devices such as smart phones or tablets, the launch of Windows 8 on 26 October is expected to revive sales of PC hardware, combined with the introduction of new ultrabook models.
