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Gartner Says PC Market in Western Europe Declined 20 Per Cent in Second Quarter of 2013

13 – .
– Mobile PC Market in the UK Has Lost 25 Per Cent of Its Volume Since 2010
– France Continued to Exhibit Weakest PC Shipments of the Region-s Three Biggest Country Markets
– PC Shipments in Germany Declined 18.7 Per Cent in Second Quarter of 2013
PC shipments in Western Europe totalled 10.9 million units in the second quarter of 2013, a decline of 19.8 per cent compared with the same period in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. (see Table 1).
“The market exit of the netbook PC, and vendors reducing their inventory to get the new Intel chips and Windows 8.1 have fuelled the decline in Western Europe,” said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner.
All PC segments in Western Europe declined. Mobile and desktop PC shipments declined 23.9 per cent and 12.2 per cent, respectively. PC shipments in the professional market declined 13.5 per cent, while the consumer PC market decreased 25.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2013.
Despite a 17.4 per cent decline in shipments, HP remained in the No. 1 position. Acer exhibited the worst performance of the top five vendors with a decline of 44.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2013. Most of Acer-s decline came from shifting its portfolio away from netbooks to Android tablets. Lenovo had another strong quarter and moved to the No. 3 position, only 47,000 PC units behind Acer. Lenovo was the only top 10 vendor to exhibit double-digit growth (18.9 per cent) in the second quarter of 2013. Dell exhibited the slowest decline in the past 12 months. “Dell-s improvement is attributed to its strategic shift from profitability protection to market share gain,” said Ms Escherich.
“We can expect some attractive new PCs in the stores for the fourth quarter of 2013, running Windows 8.1 with thinner form factors and longer battery life enabled by Intel-s Haswell processors,” said Ms Escherich. “These PCs will compete with high-end tablets and will be complemented by a new generation of Atom-based devices that will compete with low-end basic tablets.”Although this will not fully compensate for the ongoing PC decline, it does create an opportunity for profit in the midrange and more high end PC segments.”
United Kingdom: Mobile PC Market Has Lost 25 Per Cent of Its Volume Since 2010
“The second quarter marked the 11th consecutive quarter of decline in the UK,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “During this time the notebook market has shrunk nearly 25 per cent in unit volume. The UK notebook market totalled over 2 million units in the second quarter of 2010 and has now reached just under 1.5 million units.”
The consumer PC market continued to show a double-digit decline. It dropped by 25 per cent in the second quarter of 2013. “The decline was partly due to the transition of product lines as vendors made room for Haswell-based products due out later in the year,” said Mr Atwal. By comparison the professional PC market declined 2 per cent as businesses continued to migrate to Windows 7.
“After several depressing years the PC vendors are now at a make or break point in this industry,” said Mr Atwal. “The product transition involving both hardware and the upgrade of Windows 8.1 needs to reverse the steep declines we have seen in the PC market.”
The top three vendors benefited from the improved performance of the professional PC market, which declined below the market average rate. HP remained the PC leader in the UK with a 19.9 per cent share in the second quarter of 2013. Dell held onto the No. 2 position with a modest decline of 1.2 per cent in the same period. Lenovo grew in both the professional and consumer PC markets, and doubled its household market share – which grew nearly 29 per cent in the UK. “Apple, ranked in the No. 6 position, managed to exhibit a decline below the market average rate, while Samsung saw the biggest impact of the improved performance of the professional PC market with a decline of over 50 per cent,” said Mr Atwal.
France: PC Shipments Fell 19.1 Per Cent in the Second Quarter of 2013
PC shipments in France totalled 2 million units in the second quarter of 2013, a decrease of 19.1 per cent compared with the same period in 2012 (see Table 3).
For the fourth consecutive quarter, the PC market in France showed a strong decline and exhibited the weakest PC growth of the three major countries in Western Europe in the second quarter of 2013.
“The sharp decline in the second quarter of 2013 continued to be partly caused by the shift from notebooks to tablets, and partly because of inventory reductions in the channel that were caused by the transition to new Haswell-based products,” said Isabelle Durand, principal research analyst at Gartner.
In the second quarter of 2013, the mobile PC market accounted for 64 per cent of total PC shipments in France, with volumes decreasing 21 per cent. Ultraportable was the only form factor to achieve growth and represented 13 per cent of all mobile PCs shipped in the second quarter. Desktop PCs declined 15 per cent year-on-year.
In the second quarter of 2013, the consumer PC market decreased 22 per cent while the professional PC market declined 15 per cent. “PC vendors with a strong presence in the professional PC market, such as Lenovo and Dell, performed better in this segment,” said Ms Durand.
While HP remained in the No. 1 position it was a challenging quarter for the vendor in both the professional and consumer PC segments. Thanks to its strong performance in the consumer market Lenovo was the fastest growing vendor among the top five vendors. Dell achieved better results in the professional PC market, which helped it move to the No. 3 position in the second quarter of 2013.
Both Acer and Asus showed steep shipment declines compared with a year ago. Their declines were partly affected by their exit from the netbook market and their further investments in Android tablets.
“Overall, we expect the PC market in France will continue to be weak in the third quarter of 2013 despite the introduction of Haswell-based devices and Atom-based tablets,” said Ms Durand. “These new devices ought to attract users- attention and bring new growth opportunities to the PC market in France.”
Germany: PC Shipments Declined 18.7 Per Cent in the Second Quarter of 2013
PC shipments in Germany totalled 2.1 million units in the second quarter of 2013, a decrease of 18.7 per cent compared with the same period in 2012 (see Table 4).
Mobile PC shipments declined 24.5 per cent, while desktop PC volumes decreased 10.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2013. Desktops were slightly supported by sales of “all in one” models, which grew 29 per cent in volume year-on-year. Consumer and professional PC demand declined 24.3 per cent and 13.6 per cent, respectively.
“Most PC vendors have shifted their investment from consumer PCs to tablets/hybrid form factors,” said Ms Escherich. “The challenge for them is how to protect their current PC market position while competing in a very competitive and fast-moving alternative mobile device segment. Without a solid position in the professional PC market, it will be challenging for PC vendors to defend their position and allocate investment to non-PC devices and other mobile device businesses.”
Despite flat year-on-year PC volumes, Lenovo remained in the No. 1 position in the German PC market, increasing its lead with 17.2 per cent market share. Lenovo showed double-digit growth in the professional PC segment with a 12 per cent increase in the second quarter of 2013. HP remained in the No. 2 spot and maintained the same market share year-on-year. HP maintained its lead in the professional and desktop PC segments, but the gap with Lenovo is widening rapidly. Both Acer and Asus lost market share year-on year, and saw respective declines of 45 per cent and 18 per cent as their portfolios shifted away from netbooks. Dell fared slightly better thanks to its reliance on the professional PC market, where it increased PC volumes by 11 per cent in the second quarter of 2013.
“PC demand from businesses remained weak during the second quarter of 2013, but this fits with the PC seasonality trend,” said Ms Escherich. Gartner expects slight improvement in the second half of 2013 as many businesses will need to replace or upgrade their Windows XP PCs with newer devices and get them supported by Microsoft operating system. However, businesses are not likely to move to Windows 8 yet, catching up with the Windows roadmap by moving to Windows 7 instead.”

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