Acer has been knocked further down the rankings of the shrinking UK PC market as it continued to juggle efforts to clear inventory overload with sluggish consumer demand.

Sales into the channel fell 15 per cent in Q2 to 2.5 million units, Gartner beancounters have found, but Acer – hit more acutely by the market downturn – saw shipments collapse 45 per cent, allowing Dell to nab second spot behind HP.

Principal analyst Isabelle Durand said Acer's declining fortunes had "pulled down the UK market" far further than Gartner had anticipated.

"Acer had significant inventory that led to its weak performance, but it also prevented other vendors from pushing new shipments into the channel."

The vendor's reliance on the consumer market was apparent from Q3 last year when slowing retail sales first emerged and tested the limitations of its channel stuffing business model and supply chain.

The consumer market dynamics continued in Q2 with total sales into UK retailers falling 15 per cent as shoppers extended the life of PCs or purchased other devices: tablets or smartphones.

Despite higher expectations from the channel given the much-touted migration to Windows 7 and corporate refresh cycles, the professional market also slipped, with sales-in dropping 13.5 per cent.

HP remained at the summit of the UK PC market as sales fell below the market average by 11 per cent and Dell shunted Acer into third as it too did better than the UK, declining 12 per cent.

Apple moved into fourth spot behind Acer on the back of a 5 per cent climb in channel shipments and Samsung edged up by 1 per cent.

The picture across western Europe was slightly worse than the UK, with 12.7 million units flogged to disties, down 19 per cent on the year ago period, with all sectors and desktops and notebooks down.

Acer lost its top spot across the region.

The other two major PC markets in the region, France and Germany, dropped 17.8 and 13.3 per cent respectively in Q2. ®