Gartner Says PC Market in Western Europe Declined 20 Percent in Second Quarter of 2013

PC shipments in Western Europe totaled 10.9 million units in the second quarter of 2013, a decline of 19.8 percent compared with the same period in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. (see Table 1). 

"The market exit of the netbook PC, and vendors reducing their inventory to get the new Intel chips and Windows 8.1 have fuelled the decline in Western Europe," said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner. 

Table 1 Western Europe: PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q13 (Thousands of Units)

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Media tablets are excluded. Source: Gartner (August 2013)

All PC segments in Western Europe declined. Mobile and desktop PC shipments declined 23.9 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively. PC shipments in the professional market declined 13.5 percent, while the consumer PC market decreased 25.8 percent in the second quarter of 2013. 

Despite a 17.4 percent decline in shipments, HP remained in the No. 1 position. Acer exhibited the worst performance of the top five vendors with a decline of 44.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013. Most of Acer's decline came from shifting its portfolio away from netbooks to Android tablets. Lenovo had another strong quarter and moved to the No. 3 position, only 47,000 PC units behind Acer. Lenovo was the only top 10 vendor to exhibit double-digit growth (18.9 percent) in the second quarter of 2013. Dell exhibited the slowest decline in the past 12 months. "Dell’s improvement is attributed to its strategic shift from profitability protection to market share gain," said Ms. Escherich. 

"We can expect some attractive new PCs in the stores for the fourth quarter of 2013, running Windows 8.1 with thinner form factors and longer battery life enabled by Intel's Haswell processors," said Ms Escherich. "These PCs will compete with high-end tablets and will be complemented by a new generation of Atom-based devices that will compete with low-end basic tablets."Although this will not fully compensate for the ongoing PC decline, it does create an opportunity for profit in the midrange and more high end PC segments." 

United Kingdom: Mobile PC Market Has Lost 25 Percent of Its Volume Since 2010 

PC shipments in the UK totaled almost 2.2 million units in the first quarter of 2013, a decrease of 13 percent from the corresponding period in 2012 (see Table 2).

Table 2 United Kingdom: PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q13 (Thousands of Units)

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Media tablets are excluded. Source: Gartner (August 2013) 

"The second quarter marked the 11^th consecutive quarter of decline in the U.K.," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "During this time the notebook market has shrunk nearly 25 percent in unit volume. The U.K. notebook market totaled over 2 million units in the second quarter of 2010 and has now reached just under 1.5 million units." 

The consumer PC market continued to show a double-digit decline. It dropped by 25 percent in the second quarter of 2013. "The decline was partly due to the transition of product lines as vendors made room for Haswell-based products due out later in the year," said Mr. Atwal. By comparison the professional PC market declined 2 percent as businesses continued to migrate to Windows 7. 

"After several depressing years the PC vendors are now at a make or break point in this industry," said Mr. Atwal. "The product transition involving both hardware and the upgrade of Windows 8.1 needs to reverse the steep declines we have seen in the PC market." 

The top three vendors benefited from the improved performance of the professional PC market, which declined below the market average rate. HP remained the PC leader in the UK with a 19.9 percent share in the second quarter of 2013. Dell held onto the No. 2 position with a modest decline of 1.2 percent in the same period. Lenovo grew in both the professional and consumer PC markets, and doubled its household market share — which grew nearly 29 percent in the U.K. "Apple, ranked in the No. 6 position, managed to exhibit a decline below the market average rate, while Samsung saw the biggest impact of the improved performance of the professional PC market with a decline of over 50 percent," said Mr. Atwal.  

France: PC Shipments Fell 19.1 Percent in the Second Quarter of 2013 

PC shipments in France totaled 2 million units in the second quarter of 2013, a decrease of 19.1 percent compared with the same period in 2012 (see Table 3). 

For the fourth consecutive quarter, the PC market in France showed a strong decline and exhibited the weakest PC growth of the three major countries in Western Europe in the second quarter of 2013.

"The sharp decline in the second quarter of 2013 continued to be partly caused by the shift from notebooks to tablets, and partly because of inventory reductions in the channel that were caused by the transition to new Haswell-based products," said Isabelle Durand, principal research analyst at Gartner. 

Table 3 France: PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q13 (Thousands of Units)

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Media tablets are excluded       Source: Gartner (August 2013) 

In the second quarter of 2013, the mobile PC market accounted for 64 percent of total PC shipments in France, with volumes decreasing 21 percent. Ultraportable was the only form factor to achieve growth and represented 13 percent of all mobile PCs shipped in the second quarter. Desktop PCs declined 15 percent year-on-year. 

In the second quarter of 2013, the consumer PC market decreased 22 percent while the professional PC market declined 15 percent. "PC vendors with a strong presence in the professional PC market, such as Lenovo and Dell, performed better in this segment," said Ms. Durand. 

While HP remained in the No. 1 position it was a challenging quarter for the vendor in both the professional and consumer PC segments. Thanks to its strong performance in the consumer market Lenovo was the fastest growing vendor among the top five vendors. Dell achieved better results in the professional PC market, which helped it move to the No. 3 position in the second quarter of 2013. 

Both Acer and Asus showed steep shipment declines compared with a year ago. Their declines were partly affected by their exit from the netbook market and their further investments in Android tablets. 

"Overall, we expect the PC market in France will continue to be weak in the third quarter of 2013 despite the introduction of Haswell-based devices and Atom-based tablets," said Ms. Durand. "These new devices ought to attract users' attention and bring new growth opportunities to the PC market in France."

Germany: PC Shipments Declined 18.7 Percent in the Second Quarter of 2013 

PC shipments in Germany totaled 2.1 million units in the second quarter of 2013, a decrease of 18.7 percent compared with the same period in 2012 (see Table 4).

Table 4 Germany: PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q13 (Thousands of Units)

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Media tablets are excluded.  Source: Gartner (August 2013)

Mobile PC shipments declined 24.5 per cent, while desktop PC volumes decreased 10.3 percent in the second quarter of 2013. Desktops were slightly supported by sales of "all in one" models, which grew 29 percent in volume year-on-year. Consumer and professional PC demand declined 24.3 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively.

"Most PC vendors have shifted their investment from consumer PCs to tablets/hybrid form factors," said Ms. Escherich. "The challenge for them is how to protect their current PC market position while competing in a very competitive and fast-moving alternative mobile device segment. Without a solid position in the professional PC market, it will be challenging for PC vendors to defend their position and allocate investment to non-PC devices and other mobile device businesses." 

Despite flat year-on-year PC volumes, Lenovo remained in the No. 1 position in the German PC market, increasing its lead with 17.2 percent market share. Lenovo showed double-digit growth in the professional PC segment with a 12 percent increase in the second quarter of 2013. HP remained in the No. 2 spot and maintained the same market share year-on-year. HP maintained its lead in the professional and desktop PC segments, but the gap with Lenovo is widening rapidly. Both Acer and Asus lost market share year-on year, and saw respective declines of 45 percent and 18 percent as their portfolios shifted away from netbooks. Dell fared slightly better thanks to its reliance on the professional PC market, where it increased PC volumes by 11 percent in the second quarter of 2013. 

"PC demand from businesses remained weak during the second quarter of 2013, but this fits with the PC seasonality trend," said Ms. Escherich. Gartner expects slight improvement in the second half of 2013 as many businesses will need to replace or upgrade their Windows XP PCs with newer devices and get them supported by Microsoft operating system. However, businesses are not likely to move to Windows 8 yet, catching up with the Windows roadmap by moving to Windows 7 instead."