According to a report by IT research firm Gartner, PC shipments has declined by 11.4% to 14.8 million units in the third quarter of 2011, compared to the same quarter previous year.
The mobile-PC market was particularly hard hit with a 12.6% decline, driven by more than a 40% decrease in mini notebook shipments in the third quarter of 2011, while desktops declined 8.7%.
The consumer segment has shown the largest decline with 18.8% year-on-year, while PC shipments in the professional segment declined 2.1% year-on-year, the Gartner report said.
The PC shipments market was led by HP, followed Acer, Asus at number 3 position, Dell at fourth, and Apple taking the fifth place with 28% growth.
Gartner principal analyst Meike Escherich said the inventory build-up that slowed growth in the last four quarters was mostly cleared during the third quarter of 2011; however, the PC industry continued to perform below normal seasonality.
"The results in the third quarter of 2011 make unpleasant reading for the PC industry, as the third quarter is traditionally a strong consumer quarter, driven by back-to-school sales," Escherich said.
PC shipments in the UK totalled 2.9 million units in the third quarter of 2011, an 11% decline compared with the same period in 2010, the report said.
For UK, HP retained its No. 1 position acquired last quarter with Dell also holding on to second place, while Samsung chased Apple for the fourth position.
With better than the Western European average, France market saw total PC shipments to 2.6 million units in the third quarter of 2011, a decline of 2.1% compared with the same period in 2010.
In France, the consumer PC market declined 9.2% mainly because the demand for mini notebooks was lower compared with a year ago, while the professional market saw 10% in the third quarter of 2011.
Gartner principal analyst Isabelle Durand said in the third quarter of 2011, the mobile PC market accounted for 69% of total PC shipments in France, with volumes growing by 3%.
"Deskbased PCs declined by 11% year-on-year, and of the total mobile segment, mini notebooks declined by 21% year-on-year," Durand said.
PC shipments in Germany totalled 3 million units in the third quarter of 2011, a decrease of 7.9% compared with the same period in 2010.
"As expected, back-to-school PC sales were disappointing as the popularity of non-PC devices, such as media tablets and smartphones, diverted consumer spending from PCs. Exceptionally low consumer demand resulted in a 17 percent decline in the home segment," said Escherich.
The PC market continued to be hit by poor mobile PC sales that decreased 8.8% in the third quarter of 2011.
"Quarter-on-quarter growth of 23.5% could be seen as an indicator that the PC market in Germany is at least stabilising, and maybe has bottomed out, as shipments finally settle on new lower growth levels" said Escherich.
