Windows 7 apathy hits European Q3 PC shipments

PC sales in western Europe rose slightly in the third quarter of 2011, but were still 11 per cent down on the same period in 2010 as vendors continue to face tough economic conditions.

Figures from Gartner show that sales rose to 14.8 million in the most recent quarter, up from 12.6 million in the second quarter but down by almost two million on the same quarter last year.

HP retained its lead, shipping 3.37 million units, although the firm's overall market share declined from 25.1 per cent to 22.7 over the two quarters.

The figures back the decision of new HP chief executive Meg Whitman not to spin off the firm's PC division.

Asus and Acer recorded improved sales over the quarter, up by 500,000 and 200,000 respectively, but had mixed fortunes year on year. Acer sales fell by a whopping 45 per cent, while Asus sales climbed 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, Apple saw an increase in sales of more than two million over the quarter to reach 1.13 million, a rise of 19.6 per cent on the third quarter of 2010.

Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner, told V3 that the rise in sales is positive for the industry, but that the market still faces a tough future, especially with lower than expected demand for Windows 7.

"The rise between the two quarters is what we usually expect to see, so it's encouraging but doesn't indicate any serious upswing in sales. There is still a lack of enthusiasm in the market for PC devices," she said.

"Furthermore, many SMEs are looking at Windows 7 and don't see the point in upgrading, while large enterprises are only moving small pieces of their business, so there's not been the move to devices on the operating system that we expected."

Escherich added that the popularity of tablets is continuing to affect PC sales, especially with the growing consumerisation of IT making the use of tablets, particularly the iPad, more commonplace in businesses.