Euro Q4 sales boom points to record Xmas notebook sales

October, November sales well up on 2002

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Personal, 2nd January 2004 16:52 GMT

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play

Christmas 2003 may be shaping up as a boom time for notebook sales, with early figures suggesting high demand for portable PCs, market watcher Context has said.

According to Context research, UK retailers and mail order suppliers sold 31 per cent more notebooks in November than they did in the same month last year. For the UK, France and Germany, sales rose 20 per cent over the same period.

That said, October was a better month, with notebook sales rising 32.4 per cent year-on-year across those three territories. By contrast, x86 server sales were up just 8.6 per cent and desktop sales were down 12.5 per cent, Context said.

Whether December will follow November's dip and show a lower year-on-year gain, or rises back toward October's figure remains to be seen.

In Europe's top seven economies, Fujitsu-Siemens led the October boom, with units sold by the channel up 187 per cent on October 2002's sales. Acer followed with sales up 128 per cent, while HP sales increased 42 per cent over the same period.

However, HP was sill the market leader during the period, with 23.1 per cent of the channel sales. Acer followed with 18.6 per cent. ®

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play