PC shipments in Western Europe totaled 16.3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 16 per cent decline from the equivalent period in 2010, according to Gartner.

For the year, PC shipments numbered 58.5 million units in Western Europe in 2011, also a 16 percent decrease from 2010.

The PC market in Western Europe has suffered four consecutive quarters of shipment decline. "Despite aggressive pricing and special holiday deals for PCs, consumers' attention was caught by other devices, such as smartphones, media tablets and e-readers," said Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner. "Even though we saw a drop in prices, consumer PC shipments could not match the levels of previous years."

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the PC markets of Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain were particularly hard hit, with year-on-year PC demand declining 30 per cent and more. The mobile PC market in Western Europe declined 17.5 percent during the quarter, while the region's desktop PC market decreased 12.1 percent.

"Uptake of professional PCs for migrations to Windows 7 remained subdued due to the troubled economic outlook," said Ms. Escherich. "PC shipments in the professional segment declined 13.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, but the consumer segment suffered a bigger decline, falling 18 percent."

HP not only maintained the No. 1 position for PC shipments in Western Europe, but it increased its lead over Acer, despite a shipment decline of 15.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 (see Table 1). Acer continued to decline, but steadied its shipment volumes quarter-on-quarter. Dell struggled with slow demand from large organizations and the public sector, while Asus won several major deals in the retail channel, which raised its total.

"Asus has successfully shifted its portfolio from mini-notebooks to the mainstream and managed to outgrow the market," said Ms. Escherich. Lenovo's growth was partly due to its acquisition of Medion in Germany, which helped it secure the No. 5 position. Lenovo offered very aggressive prices, which made Western Europe one of its key regions.

"The impact of the hard-disk drive shortage was minimal in the fourth quarter of 2011, with local vendors feeling most of the impact. 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," said Ms. Escherich.

Western Europe: PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q11

(Thousands of Units)

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Media tablets are excluded. Lenovo data includes historic Medion shipments.