According to market research company Dataquest, a division of
Gartner, a sharp decline in consumer sales during the second
quarter of 2001 has hit personal computer shipments in Western
Europe and caused the first recorded decline in the region's PC
market. The report shows that, in total, 6.02 million PC units were
shipped in Western Europe during that period, which was 4% lower
than during the same period last year.
Brian Gammage, an analyst with Gartner Dataquest's Computing
Platform group said:
"... Many of the leading international
vendors have seen shipments decline, some by a significant degree,
and only those who are executing against a clear strategy are
seeing shipment levels increase. However, in a market where prices,
margins and volumes are all declining, it is far from certain that
the winners are those who are gaining market share."
According to the report, Dell saw the highest rate of shipment
increase, continuing to eat into Compaq's market lead and
Hewlett-Packard also saw double-digit growth, whilst IBM saw
shipments grow at a more modest rate.
The two largest country markets, Germany and the United Kingdom,
recorded declines of 11.9% and 7.3%, respectively. Shipments in
France, the third-largest market, grew by 7.8%, mainly because of a
strong professional segment and high-volume employee purchase
schemes.
