Apple outdoes Acer and Toshiba in the UK PC market

Acer and Toshiba experienced difficulties in the UK PC market during the fourth quarter of 2010, both seeing a double-digit decline in sales as smartphones and tablets started to steal the spotlight, according to research from Gartner.

Acer logged a drop of 15.3 per cent and was displaced by HP as the number-one vendor in the UK owing to a slowdown in the consumer mobile PC market and weak netbook sales.

Dell remained in third position with 16.4 per cent, despite experiencing a three per cent drop in demand during the fourth quarter.

However, fourth placed Toshiba experienced the biggest downturn in fortunes. The vendor's fourth-quarter sales fell by 20 per cent year on year, rounding off a miserable 12 months for the Japanese firm, which also had to pull its Folio 100 tablet from the market just 10 days after release.

Apple, meanwhile, rounded off a phenomenal year by making the top five PC vendor list for the first time. The firm's 6.2 per cent market share was put down to strong retail sales and high demand for the latest MacBook Air laptop.

Overall PC shipments in the UK were weak over the Christmas period, resulting in sales of 3.7 million units in the fourth quarter. The sluggish performance was put down to uncertain economic and employment conditions, and adverse weather conditions in several countries, Gartner said.

Many consumers and businesses adopted a wait-and-see approach as they anticipated new products and cheaper media tablets in the first quarter of 2011.

The consumer and enterprise markets declined during the fourth quarter. Enterprise demand was down by 3.1 per cent as businesses continued to extend the life of hardware and delay the replacement cycle, explained Ranjit Atwal, a research director at Gartner.

"We will continue to see a tough business environment in the first half of 2011, and the PC market will remain under pressure until additional budget becomes available," he said.

Despite vendors having a slow fourth quarter in the UK, total shipments for 2010 were up by 5.4 per cent to 13.1 million.

PC shipments in western Europe, meanwhile, totalled 19.4 million units in the fourth quarter, a decline of 4.4 per cent year on year. Total shipments in 2010 reached 46 million in western Europe, a flat market from 2009.

HP retained the lead in the professional and desk-based PC segments in Europe, but lost its leading position to Acer in the consumer segment. Dell, Asus and Apple rounded off the top five vendors.