European PC market driven by Net

The rush to get online is fuelling PC demand in Europe, with 1999 seeing an 18 per cent increase in sales over 1998. Figures from research analysts Dataquest, show 29.9 million PCs were sold in Europe last year, with the home PC market growing by 32 per cent year-on-year. In the Western European home PC market, 8.5 million units were shipped in 1999. Howard Seabrook, vice president and director for Dataquest's Computer Systems and Peripherals programs, says the picture of the typical European PC user is changing. "The image of the lone gamer, isolated and hidden away in his bedroom has changed, and we see expansive, Internet-based computing with everyone wanting to be connected." Dell had the highest sales growth rate across Europe, shifting more than 2.6 million PCs, pushing it to the number three slot in the PC vendor Top 10 with 8.7 per cent of the market. The recently formed Fujitsu Siemens is Europe's number two PC vendor, thanks in the main to Siemens' substantial German fan base. According to Dataquest, combined sales of Fujitsu and Siemens PCs across Europe last year stood at 3.5 million, which equates to a market share of 11.5 per cent. Of course, the leader of the pack is still Compaq, which shipped 4.7 million PC last year, netting it 15.6 per cent share of the market. IBM and Hewlett Packard were third and fourth respectively. HP saw its market share rise by an impressive 28 per cent to 6.3 per cent, thanks to shipments totalling 1.9 million in 1999. Big Blue shifted 2.3 million units, an increase of 11.1 per cent, giving it 7.8 per cent of the market. Germany remains the major force in the European PC market. In 1999, Germans bought 21.6 per cent more PCs than last year, totalling 6.6 million machines. The UK was the second biggest PC market in 1999, with shipments of 5.5 million units, up 25.2 per cent from 1998. In France, which was number three, 4.4 million units were shipped, which represents an increase of 26.7 per cent. ® Related Stories PC sales up 23 per cent last year despite Y2K Dell eats into Compaq's European sales Compaq and Dell play cat and mouse with PC sales