Western Europe PC shipments has reached 19.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. It is a decrease of 4.4%, compared to the same quarter of 2009, according to a IT research and advisory firm Gartner.
HP maintained the top spot in Western Europe PC shipments accounting for 22.1% of the total market share, even though its shipment growth rate declined by 0.5%.
Acer posted a market growth rate of 20.8%, while Dell registered 9.8% during the fourth quarter of 2010.
Gartner said Dell continued to struggle in the consumer PC market, but benefited from a slight pickup in demand for professional PCs.
Asus marked the strong year-on-year growth among the top 5 vendors, with a growth rate of 13.5% in the Q4 2010.
Geographically, PC shipments in the UK totaled 3.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010, a decline of 2.7% from the same period in 2009.
However, for the year 2010, PC shipments in the UK reached 13.1 million units, representing a 5.4% increase from 2009.
The research firm said that in the Q4 2010, the UK’s professional PC market remained weak, declining 3.1%, with the expected replacement cycle once again delayed as organisations extended PC life cycles.
PC shipments in France totaled 3.1 million units in the Q4 2010, a decline of 5.2% compared with the same period in 2009, while in 2010, PC shipments in France reached 11.8 million units, an increase of 10% from 2009.
Gartner principal analyst Isabelle Durand said PC demand in France will remain weak in the first quarter of 2011 as PC vendors are likely to face increasing competition from consumer devices such as tablets and smartphones, which will capture a slice of consumers’ PC budgets and will ultimately displace mobile PCs.
Gartner said that the PC shipments in Germany totaled 3.9 million units in the Q4 of 2010, a decrease of 5.4% compared with the same period in 2009, while for the year 2010, PC shipments in Germany reached 13.3 million units, a growth of 4.7% from 2009.
In the Q4 2010, mobile PC shipments in Germany decreased 1.6%, and desktop PC shipments fell by 13.3%.
Gartner principal analyst Meike Escherich said selling hardware has become less about the hardware itself and more about software, services and applications.
"The fourth quarter of 2010 is a good indicator that the market will have to get used too much slower demand for consumer PCs in the future," Escherich said.
