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European computer sales continue to fall
Tuesday, April 23 2002
by Matthew Clark


New data from IDC says that PC shipments declined 1.5 percent in Europe, the
Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in the first three months of 2002. 



 









According to IDC, the market for PCs is showing limited signs of recovery, but
savage competition among vendors remained fierce in Q1 2002 keeping prices down.
Moreover corporate investments remained cautious, affecting both desktop and
notebook sales. 





The consumer market remained soft as well, IDC said, and no major rebound is
expected before the second half of the year. But there was a bright spot in the
notebook market, which is continuing to boom thanks to the strong competition
among vendors and retailers who are selling computers at low prices. 





In fact the notebook market grew over 13 percent in the first quarter in EMEA
with drive coming from small business as well as from consumers. "Intense
competition on specification and price, and the introduction of Pentium 4 onto
the mobile platform in Europe, contributed to drive sales," explained Andy
Brown, research manager for EMEA Mobile Computing at IDC. 





Compared to last year at this time, PC sales in Western Europe were down 5.1
percent and the lack of a corporate rebound in Europe's three largest economies
continued to prevent a return to positive growth as companies hesitate to spend
cash on non-essential technologies. But Eastern Europe recorded excellent growth
at 10.9 percent and the Middle East and Africa region also showed strong recovery
with 20.4 percent growth year on year.





"This year will be another tough year for the PC industry," said Karine Paoli,
IDC's EMEA personal computing expertise center manager. "As corporate demand is
expected to remain constrained by the current market conditions, and as there is
little hope for a major rebound in the desktop consumer marketplace before the
end of the year." 









In terms of the different PC makers themselves, the top five vendors, IBM, Dell,
Fujitsu-Siemens, Compaq and HP, captured 50 percent of total EMEA sales. 





Compaq dominated the overall PC market in EMEA driven by its success in the
notebook sector. Compaq shipped over 1.3 million units in the quarter and held
14.5 percent of the market, but shipments were down almost eight percent over
last year. Dell however saw its unit shipment climb by over eight percent, to
more than 1 million, to capture 11.2 percent of the market. 





HP also saw its shipments go up by almost three percent to 855,000, or 9.4
percent of the market. Fujitsu Siemens and IBM came in fourth and fifth place
with 8.7 percent and 5.6 percent of the market respectively. 





The remaining computer makers, Acer, NEC CI, Toshiba, Apple, and Vobis ranked
sixth through tenth in that order.