HP loses top PC spot in Europe
Cheap netbooks keep market afloat
The worldwide PC market grew in the last quarter but only because of sales of netbooks such as the Asus Eee PC.
PC shipments grew 15 per cent compared to the same quarter a year ago and manufacturers shipped 80.6m units in total.
HP retained number one slot worldwide but paid the price for its slow entry into the sub-notebook, or netbook, market - it lost its top spot in Europe. Gartner analysts said it was difficult to say if sales of smaller machines are a new market or are cannibalising sales of full-size, and full-price, laptops.
The crashing economy had an impact particularly on the US professional market. US home computer sales were also soft after several quarters of growth.
Worldwide HP shipped 14.7m units, for 18.4 per cent market share. Dell was in second place with 10.9m shipments and a 13.6 per cent market share, while Acer came in third place with 10.03m shipments and a 12.5 per cent market share, up from 9.7 per cent last year.
In the US Dell was in top spot with a 29.5 per cent market share, HP was second with 25.7 per cent and Apple in third place with 9.5 per cent. Acer was just behind Apple with a share of 8.9 per cent. The US failed to see the usual return to school hike in sales.
Mika Kitagawa, Gartner's principal analyst for client computers, said growing mini-notebook sales were best exploited by Asus and Acer and that slower moving vendors would struggle match their growth. Netbooks accounted for five per cent of US sales.
In Europe, the Middle East and Africa PC sales grew 25.9 per cent to 28.8m units. Growth was largely down to netbooks - because of this HP lost its number one position to Acer - Acer secured 20.6 per cent of the EMEA market compared to 18.7 per cent for HP.
Of course the downsides of increased sales of mini-notebooks for vendors are mini-price points and mini-margins. ®
COMMENTS
Biggest reseller of computers, independant resellers
Hi, once again the independants have our produced in one of the name brand computers. Why they are less costly and better with local service from the builders.
What, it wasn't Sun?
I thought the Sunshiners were telling us that Niagara kinda-like-a-real-CPU-only-weedier thingummy was going to rule the world? Oh, you mean to say it only works in edge servers for a very limited range of solutions, and represents another example of a dying Sun not moving beyond the core datacenter, unlike HP? Bet Schwartz wishes he had any bizz that was number two in Bangladesh, let alone had diversiified into PCs and grown into the world leader, skinny margins or not.
/still pointing and laughing at the Sunshiners!
Acer??
I have 3 of these and all three fell apart. If they carry on like this, at any price, they won't be at number one for long.
RE: So..
"In Europe, the Middle East and Africa PC sales grew 25.9 per cent to 28.8m units. Growth was largely down to netbooks - because of this HP lost its number one position to Acer - Acer secured 20.6 per cent of the EMEA market compared to 18.7 per cent for HP."
Top spot in Europe
>>By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 15th October 2008 09:00 GMT
>>... if HP have been knocked off the top spot in Europe, who now has it?
You didn't read all the way to the bottom, did you?
