PC shipments in Western Europe increased by 4% to 20.26 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 19.48 million units for the same period last year, while shipments for the full year remained flat from 2008 with 64.8 million units, according to research firm Gartner.
Gartner expects a resurgence of the professional PC market to bolster the PC market in 2010, which was underpinned by the consumer PC market in 2009. Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner, said: “Windows 7 migration will act as the catalyst for replacement activity in the professional PC market in 2010.”
Acer gained the top spot with 4.7 million units in Q4 2009, accounting for a market share of 23.1%, while HP took the second place with a share of 21.3%, followed by Dell, Asus and Toshiba with a share of 9.9%, 8% and 6.2%, respectively.
According to Gartner, PC shipments in the UK rose by 3.3% to 3.76 million units from 3.64 million units in the same period last year. Acer took the top spot with a growth of 32.2%, accounting for a market share of 19.1%, while HP and Dell exhibited a 7.1% decline each, with a share of 18.9% and 16.5%, respectively. Toshiba and Samsung Electronics followed accounted for a market share of 10.4% and 6.5%, respectively.
PC shipments in France totalled 3.3 million units, an increase of 4.5% compared to the same period in 2008. Acer shipments grew by 16% accounting for 24.7% of market share, followed by HP and Dell with a share of 24.4% and 10.4%, respectively. Asus exhibited the second highest year-on-year growth of 27.6%, with a share of 10.2%.
Apple made its debut among the top five PC vendors displacing Toshiba with a growth of 43.5% and a market share of 5.5%. Apple refreshed its iMac and Mac Mini lines which bolstered desktop PC sales during the quarter.
PC shipments in Germany rose by 9.9% to 4.2 million units, compared to same period last year. Acer moved to the first position with strong performance in the mini-notebooks segment, where sales reached more than 100% growth in Q4 2009. HP gained the second spot, although its year over year shipments were down by 13%.
Mr Atwal, said: “For the first time in 2009, it was in the fourth quarter that we saw the three major countries in Western Europe posted growth. The Western European PC market performed better than expected. Despite the tough economic conditions the consumer PC market provided vendors with a source of growth. The vendors that were able to execute their strategy clearly benefited from the consumers’ propensity to purchase PCs.”
