PC shipments in Western Europe totaled 12.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013, a decline of 20.5% from the corresponding period of 2012, according to Gartner.
"The first quarter of 2013 brought the worst quarterly decline in Western Europe since Gartner started tracking PC shipments in this region," said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Wide availability of Windows 8-based PCs could not boost consumer PC purchases during the quarter. Although the new Metro-style user interface suits new form factors, users wonder about its suitability for traditional PCs - non-touchscreen desktops and notebooks."
All PC segments in Western Europe exhibited on-year declines in the first quarter of 2013. Mobile and desktop shipments fell by 24.6% and 13.8%, respectively. Shipments to the professional PC market declined by 17.2%, while those to the consumer PC market decreased by 23.7%.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer both recorded declines of over 30%. However, despite seeing its consumer notebook volumes halve during the quarter, HP remained the market leader.
Lenovo and Apple were the only top-five vendors to record growth. Lenovo was again the fastest-growing vendor, with growth in both desktop and notebook shipments. This enabled it to close the gap with Acer, which held on to second place. Lenovo continued to expand in the consumer PC sector by winning share from both Acer and HP, and by being aggressive in the professional PC market, where it competed closely with HP and Dell.
"The battle for consumer wallet share continues between different devices," said Escherich. "The PC is the first to fall by the wayside as usage patterns shift toward smartphones and tablets. This ongoing trend will have a profound impact on the size of the installed base of PCs," said Escherich.
The UK: Lenovo prevents professional PC market from declining faster
PC shipments in the UK totaled 2.5 million units in the first quarter of 2013, a decrease of 15.8% from the corresponding period of 2012.
"Many consumers no longer require a PC as usage of smartphones and tablets takes over," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.
Mobile PC shipments declined by 22% in the first quarter of 2013, while desktop PC volumes decreased by 5.2%.
Consumer and professional PC demand declined by 23.5% and 7.6%, respectively. "Lenovo's strong performance in the first quarter of 2013 prevented the professional PC market declining faster. While the professional PC market continues to see the importance of the productivity gained from using a PC, consumers attribute much less value to the use of PCs," said Atwal.
HP retained the number one position, despite losing nearly 25% of its PC volume in a single year. Acer exhibited the worst performance of the first quarter, with a decline of 26.6%. Only Lenovo achieved growth. It performed strongly in the professional PC sector, but like other vendors, declined in the consumer PC sector.
France: PC shipments decline by 25%
PC shipments in France totaled just over two million units in the first quarter of 2013, a fall of over 25% from the corresponding period of 2012.
This was the third consecutive quarterly decline in France's PC market. It was also the weakest performance of the three major Western European countries."The shift to buying devices other than PCs persisted in France, and businesses continued to extend life cycle of traditional PCs," said Isabelle Durand, principal analyst at Gartner.
In the first quarter of 2013, the mobile PC market accounted for 62% of PC shipments in France as volumes decreased by 26%. "One reason for the decline was a drop in netbook shipments, which represented less than 1% of all notebook shipments in France during the quarter," said Durand. The decline in desktops, of 24%, was less steep than that of mobile PCs.
Shipments of ultrabooks remained slow as prices were still relatively high. New models with more attractive prices will reach the market only in the second half of 2013. The ultraportable segment represented 14% of the mobile PCs shipped in France in the first quarter 2013.
The consumer PC market decreased by 28%, while the professional PC market declined by 21%.
"Some organizations do not adopt new operating systems - in this case Windows 8 - immediately, as it takes time for their IT departments to test them before deployment. As a result, some organizations continued to refresh their PCs with models running Windows 7.
Four of the top five vendors recorded double-digit declines in shipments. The exception was Lenovo, which grew slightly owing to a strong retail presence that helped it gain share in the consumer sector. HP remained in the lead, but had a challenging quarter in both the professional segment and the consumer segment. Asustek Computer's shipments declined mainly because of a fall in netbook sales, with sales of ultrabooks remaining low.
"Overall, we expect the PC market in France to show a double-digit decline in the second quarter of 2013," said Durand.
Germany: PC shipments decline for eleventh quarter in a row
PC shipments in Germany totaled 2.6 million units in the first quarter of 2013, a decrease of 20% from the corresponding period of 2012.
"This was not only the eleventh consecutive quarter of shipment decline, but also the worst we've seen since Gartner started tracking the German market," said Escherich.
Mobile PC shipments declined by 24.7% while desktop volumes fell by 13.1%. Consumer and professional PC demand fell by 18.6% and 21.4%, respectively.
"Consumers generally do not buy tablets with the aim of replacing a PC, but tablets, once in use, often take a central role in everyday computing tasks and people find themselves spending less and less time at a PC. We expect the installed base of PCs to shrink as more tablets and smartphones are purchased," said Escherich.
In Germany, Lenovo retained the number one position that it has held since the third quarter of 2012. It performed better than the market average in all segments, including 2% growth in the consumer segment.
Acer exhibited the worst performance of the first quarter, with an overall shipment decline of 45.6%. Its shipments in the consumer PC segment fell by 48%.
HP, the number two, remained the leader in the professional PC and desktop segments. But the gap with Lenovo is widening rapidly.
"We expect this market to decline further through 2013. However, demand in the professional PC sector and the release of Intel's Haswell processor could boost shipments in the second half of 2013 and into 2014," said Escherich. | 