PC shipments decline
PC shipments decline
Gartner says PC shipments have declined year on year
PC shipments in Western Europe totalled 13.3 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 3.3 per cent decline from the same period in 2008, according to Gartner.
“The Western European PC market saw a diverging trend,” said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner, based in the UK. On one side, the market saw a 21 per cent decline in the professional market and on the other it recorded a 21 per cent growth in the consumer market. The strength of the mini-notebook market, which now constitutes more than a quarter of all consumer shipments, gave the market some momentum.
“You have to view the market with and without mini-notebooks to understand the true picture,” he added. ”Without mini-notebooks, the market would have declined more than 15 per cent, but given the new routes to market and price points of these PCs, they have managed to prevent a more severe decline.”
All three major markets the UK, France and Germany saw negative growth and the decline is set to continue for the rest of 2009. Although the UK was the weakest, France and Germany were on the same trajectory with demand in professional and consumer markets expected to weaken.
In the second quarter of 2009, Acer achieved growth through the increase in shipments of mini-notebooks, selling nearly 50 per cent of all mini-notebooks shipped. On the other hand, Dell suffered as sales collapsed in the professional market.
The PC market in the UK had another weak quarter as PC shipments totalled 2.6 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a decline of 6.5 per cent decline compared with the same period in 2008.
“The difference this quarter was that both the professional and consumer markets were weak in the second quarter of 2009,” said Mr Atwal. The professional market declined more than 25 per cent year-on-year and the consumer market was flat despite the influx of mini-notebooks into the market. “This quarter was highlighted by the level of decline across both desk based and mobile PC platforms, with a quarter of the market disappearing,” he added.
