Western European PC shipments fall 16pc in Q4 2011 - Gartner

PC shipments in Western Europe totalled 16.3m units in Q4 of 2011, and 58.5m units in Western Europe for the year 2011, also a 16pc decrease from 2010.

The PC market in Western Europe has experienced four consecutive quarters of shipment decline.

"Despite aggressive pricing and special holiday deals for PCs, consumers' attention was caught by other devices, such as smartphones, media tablets and e-readers," said Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner. "Even though we saw a drop in prices, consumer PC shipments could not match the levels of previous years."

In the fourth quarter of 2011, markets in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain were particularly hard hit, with year-on-year PC demand declining 30pc and more. The mobile PC market in Western Europe declined 17.5pc during the quarter, while the region's desktop PC market shrank 12.1pc.

"Uptake of professional PCs for migrations to Windows 7 remained subdued due to the troubled economic outlook," said Escherich. “PC shipments in the professional segment declined 13.5pc in the fourth quarter of 2011, but the consumer segment suffered a bigger decline, falling 18pc.”

Western Europe: PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q11 (Thousands of Units)

^{Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Media tablets are excluded.Lenovo data includes historic Medion shipments.
Source: Gartner (February 2012)}