Western Europe PC shipments continue to fall

PC vendors saw weakening demand in the professional and consumer markets

PC shipments continued to decline in Western Europe during the quarter, with the UK posting the biggest tail off, according to new stats from analyst firm Gartner released today.

Shipments in the region reached 13.3 million in the second quarter of 2009, a 3.3 per cent decline from the same period in 2008. The professional market suffered a whopping 21 per cent decline.

The UK continued to fare particularly badly, shipping just 2.6 million units in the quarter, a decline of 6.5 per cent year on year. The UK professional market fell by more than 25 per cent, and the consumer market remained flat despite the strong performance of mini-notebooks, said Gartner.

"The difference this quarter was that both the professional and consumer markets were weak in the second quarter of 2009," said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner.

"This quarter was highlighted by the level of decline across both desk-based and mobile PC platforms, with a quarter of the market disappearing."

Dell retained its position at the top of the vendor charts with a market share of 23.4 per cent, despite a six per cent decline, while HP fell out of the top two with a fall of 25 per cent, to be replaced by Acer which grew by over 30 per cent.