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7.6 million PCs shipped in Europe in Q2

Not a return to the glory days of 1998

European PC sales grew nine per cent to 7.6 million units in the second quarter of 2000.

According to a Dataquest report, shipments in the business sector grew just 0.3 per cent, but this segment still accounted for the lion's share of the market with 72 per cent of Europe's PC sales and 5.5 million units.

Growth in the home PC market was far healthier - with sales up 40 per cent at 2.1 million units.

Regionally, Germany had the most shipments with 1.5 million, up 10 per cent over the second quarter the previous year. UK shipments reached 1.3 million units, up 11 per cent, and France saw almost one million units, down 0.8 per cent.

Russia showed the strongest growth - with shipments of 0.3 million, up 29 per cent.

"Continued lockdown because of year 2000 issues, slow adoption of Windows 2000 and margin erosions in the large account business are the main reasons being given for the slow growth in the professional segment by both vendors and corporate dealers alike," said Howard Seabrook, Dataquest VP for computer systems and peripherals programs.

"Another reason often cited is of companies diverting IT expenditure into large e-business implementations - if so, where are the corresponding server sales?"

"We believe these are the symptoms of change, rather than root causes. European IT markets are evolving and, after four strange quarters, we are now living in different times. There is no return to the now seemingly balmy days of 1998," Seabrook added.

In terms of vendors, Hewlett-Packard fared well in the quarter - with 17 per cent growth it was the only vendor that grew quicker than the industry average. Its 551,000 units helped it net 7.2 per cent market share and put it in fourth position overall.

Compaq stayed at number one, with 16 per cent market share, 1.2 million shipments and 7 per cent growth. Fujitsu Siemens and Dell had just over 650,000 shipments each, with nine and 8.5 per cent market share respectively. ®

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