Personal computer shipments in Western Europe fell 20.5 per cent to 12.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013 from the corresponding period a year-ago.
All PC segments exhibited year-on-year decline during the first three months, according to a report by research and analysis firm Gartner.
Mobile and desktop PC shipments fell 24.6 per cent and 13.8 percent, respectively. Shipments to the professional PC market declined 17.2 per cent, while those to the consumer PC market decreased 23.7 per cent.
“The first quarter of 2013 brought the worst quarterly decline in Western Europe since Gartner started tracking PC shipments in this region,’’ said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner.
“Wide availability of Windows 8-based PCs could not boost consumer PC purchases during the quarter. Although the new Metro-style user interface suits new form factors, users wonder about its suitability for traditional PCs — non-touchscreen desktops and notebooks,” Escherich added.
HP and Acer both recorded declines of over 30 per cent. However, despite seeing its consumer notebook volumes halve during this quarter, HP remained the market leader.
Top 5 vendors
Lenovo and Apple were the only top five vendors to record growth. Lenovo was again the fastest-growing vendor, with growth in both desktop and notebook PC shipments. This enabled it to close the gap with Acer, which held on to second place.
Lenovo continued to expand in the consumer PC sector by winning its share from both Acer and HP, and by being aggressive in the professional PC market, where it competed closely with HP and Dell.
“The battle for consumer wallet share continues between different devices,’’ Escherich said.