Dell can't blame poor performance on Euro PC market

Ze Europeans, zey are buying plenty, says Gartner.

By Lucy Sherriff • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 14th October 2000 08:56 GMT

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Research published today from Gartner Group indicates that PC demand in Europe is not to blame for poor performance in the hardware market, contrary to statements from both Intel and Dell. The report predicts growth rates of 11-13 per cent - below last year's 23 per cent, but not to be sniffed at.

Analysts at IDC bolstered the predictions from Gartner, forecasting growth rates of around 13 per cent this year. Andrew Brown told the FT: "The small to medium business sector is still healthy, the consumer market is very healthy and notebooks are booming." He said that while the corporate market had been slow in the first half this year, it was expected to pick up by year end.

Both Dell and Intel have pointed to the European market as the cause of their lower than expected earnings. Howard Seabrook, vice president of the Gartner Group said: "I am surprised by Dell and Intel's statements. We have not seen substantial weakness in the PC market."

Meanwhile, Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Bancorp Piper Jaffray, said that increased competition was the more likely culprit. He said Dell had not been performing in Europe for some time, and that AMD's aggressive campaign had cut into Intel's market share. AMD gained four percentage points of market share from Intel in the last year, he said, and now had a 12 per cent market share against Intel's 84 per cent.

Michael Dell was sticking to his story. He said that the decline of the Euro against the Dollar meant that people were being more cautious with their money. ®