Samsung has announced that it will stop selling its laptops in Europe for the foreseeable future.

The retreat also includes the firm’s Chromebooks.

The company, which most recently released its Galaxy Note 4 phablet, said: "We quickly adapt to market needs and demands. In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of laptops including Chromebooks for now.

"This is specific to the region – and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets. We will continue to thoroughly evaluate market conditions and will make further adjustments to maintain our competitiveness in emerging PC categories."

Samsung is just the latest casualty in the PC and laptop sales war in Europe. Sony pulled the plug on its Vaio line of laptops in February, selling the brand to a Japanese firm.

According to IDC analysts, global sales of PCs will decline by 3.7% this year, but that the fall has been slowed down somewhat by Chromebooks and Windows XP upgrades.

IDC said that Chromebook shipments have been growing, but that vendors will ship about 175 million phablets this year, compared to 170 million laptops.