The PC market in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) grew 7.6% in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the corresponding quarter in 2010, despite the expected impact of hard disc drive (HDD) shortages and sustained economic uncertainty in the region, according to research firm IDC.
The flooding in Thailand last year, which resulted in a shortfall of about 50 million HDDs worldwide, was expected to constrain the PC market, but the impact was moderate with all three sub-regions posting stronger than expected results across both desktop and portable form factors.
IDC CEMA research director Stefania Lorenz said contrary to the initial expectation of the negative impact of HDD shortages, the PC market in both Central Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa exceeded expectations and recovered with annual growth of 18.3% and 13.5%, respectively.
"The CEMA region reported total PC volume of 12.08 million with 50:50 share between the two regions. Desktop shipments contracted in both regions, but the portable PC market was a clear winner, with annual growth of over 30% for both regions combined. CEE had a stronger increase of 35.7% year-on-year while MEA grew by 24.7%," Lorenz said.
IDC EMEA Personal Computing research manager Eszter Morvay said although the rebound in Western Europe remained moderate compared to emerging markets, with overall PC shipments increasing by 1.8%, all countries displayed healthier sell-in results than anticipated.
"Denmark and Sweden recorded the highest growth at double-digits, while the UK also experienced a healthy rebound of 8%. France remained soft at -0.1% while Germany posted a sustained 6.1%. But most surprisingly the debt-stricken Spain has also shown a major improvement in sell-in, posting a soft decline of just 2.3%," Morvay added.
HP led the market and continued to consolidate market share across EMEA by robust expansion in CEE and MEA, while Western Europe also returned to positive due to the recovery of commercial desktop volumes.
Acer remained in second place, posting positive growth, which was driven by emerging markets, while its market in Western Europe continued to contract due to a further drop in mini-notebook volumes, said IDC.
Dell maintained third place with robust expansion in CEE in particular, followed by ASUS, posting double-digit growth in EMEA and gaining share across all sub-regions due to robust increases in mainstream notebook volumes.
Lenovo and Toshiba stood at fifth and sixth place, respectively, in terms of market share, both posting a healthy growth in the quarter, whereas Samsung reported another quarter of negative trends due primarily to a sharp drop in mini-notebook sales.
