Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are going to lead the way out of the current slump in computer purchasing because of their business behavior.

Leslie Sobon, vice president of worldwide product marketing at AMD, said: “We think SMEs will be the first part of the commercial sector to grow.

“The sector is more transactional; its purchasing is less cyclical and dependent on refresh cycles. With Windows 7 being reviewed so well that could help growth - this is not a community that waits for service pack one.”

She said President Obama's $15bn (£9bn) small and medium-sized loan programme would also drive sales of computer equipment for this sector.

What makes the sector doubly interesting is that its purchasing patterns are also similar to that of consumers. Rather than going through resellers, SMEs tend to buy from either retail or online sources.

As such, AMD was putting a lot of effort into training retail staff and increasing point of sale information on new systems. But differences in the European and US markets are leading to a difference in strategy, in part down to poor IT knowledge among European retail staff.

“It is anecdotal, but in Europe it seems like buying a computer is like buying toaster,” Sobon said.

“In Europe you do not get people to help you. But it all either comes together or falls about in the retailer, so the best money we spend is in training the staff.”

The company has also moved to make its chipsets more retail friendly with the Vision campaign and has said that it is looking to extend the program into other spheres of business.