PC shipments in Western Europe totalled 13.6m units in the second quarter of 2012, signifying a 2.4pc decline compared to the same period last year, Gartner, Inc, reported.
“Although we saw a slight uptake in mobile PC sales, the Western Europe PC market recorded weak overall PC shipments across all countries,” said Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner.
In Western Europe, mobile PC shipments increased 4pc, while desk-based PC shipments decreased 12.8pc in the second quarter of 2012. The professional PC market dropped by 5.3pc, while the consumer PC market was almost flat, with 0.4pc growth.
HP maintained its grip on the No 1 position in the Western Europe PC market during Q2, despite losing market share.
Acer put in a strong performance, having resolved its inventory issues, Gartner said. The company increased its market share by 2.7 percentage points, which helped it retain the No 2 spot.
Asus had the best performance among the top 5 vendors and moved up to No 3.
“Asus excelled at diversifying its product portfolio, which includes mobile PCs and desk-based PCs, and it is now expanding into ultrabooks and tablets, all of which are marketed at attractive prices,” said Escherich.
Dell struggled to increase its PC shipments and dropped to No 4. Its transformation from a PC supplier to a solution provider for professional markets is ongoing and has yet to result in a rise in market share.
“Consumer spending on PCs has been stalled by the ongoing economic uncertainty,” Escherich added.
“If demand, especially from consumers, remains weak, there might be some old stock left in the channels ahead of the Windows 8 launch in October. This could lead to significant price cuts in September, and challenges may arise in selling new products into the channel in the third quarter of 2012.”
Computer image via Shutterstock
Table 1
Western Europe: PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q12 (Thousands of Units)
| Vendor | 2Q12 Shipments | 2Q12 Market Share (%) | 2Q11 Shipments | 2Q11 Market Share (%) | 2Q11-2Q12 Growth (%) |
| HP | 2,760 | 20.2 | 3,171 | 22.7 | -13.0 |
| Acer | 2,361 | 17.3 | 2,047 | 14.6 | 15.3 |
| Asus | 1,458 | 10.7 | 1,021 | 7.3 | 42.8 |
| Dell | 1,185 | 8.7 | 1,371 | 9.8 | -13.6 |
| Lenovo | 1,057 | 7.8 | 961 | 6.9 | 10.0 |
| Others | 4,822 | 35.3 | 5,413 | 38.7 | -10.9 |
| Total | 13,643 | 100.0 | 13,984 | 100.0 | -2.4 |
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Media tablets are excluded.
Source: Gartner (August 2012)
