UK PC shipments down nearly 20%

PCR reports.

Gartner said the UK was a "prime illustration" of a weakness in PC demand across Europe. "Despite aggressive pricing and special holiday deals for PCs, consumers' attention was caught by other devices, such as smartphones, media tablets and e-readers," says Gartner analyst Meike Escherich.

According to Hexus, out of the top five UK vendors, only Apple experienced growth, recording 17.2% increase year-on-year and overtaking Acer, which experienced a huge dip in sales from 610 000 units to just 230 000 units in Q4 2011.

Dell also suffered, with figures showing a 32.2% decline in sales from 601 000 to 408 000 in Q4 2011, while market leader HP saw shipments dip from 847 000 units to 618 000, a decline of 27%. Shipments of Toshiba PCs also dropped by 5.4% from 313 000 units to 296 000.

Tech Week Europe reports that, as a result of the floods in Thailand, the impact of the hard disk drive shortage appeared to be minimal in the fourth quarter of 2011, with local vendors feeling most of the effects.

“If general market conditions continue to deteriorate, we expect hard disk drive shortages to be just one of many contributors to overall PC market contraction in 2012,” says Escherich.