UK PC biz sees best growth for four years

Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2004/08/04/uk_pc_market_q2/

Q2 boom in desktops, notebooks and servers

Posted in Channel, 4th August 2004 15:07 GMT

The UK PC market marked its fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth during Q2 as sales rose 21.4 per cent year on year to 1.88m desktops, notebooks and servers, market watcher IDC reports.

That figure also represents the UK market's highest quarterly growth rate for almost four years, the researcher added.

IDC said desktops were the quarter's "real success story". Strong corporate demand, increased take-up of Windows XP and more competitive offerings from retailers drove desktop shipments up 19.6 per cent year on year during the Q2 - three times the rate seen between Q2 2003 and Q2 2002.

Notebook shipments were up 24.3 per cent year on year, while 29 per cent more x86 servers shipped in the UK during Q2 2004 than Q2 2003.

Business-oriented desktop shipments grew 27.3 per cent year on year, IDC said, as the "steady" corporate demand seen in recent quarters shifted "up a gear" in Q2, according to IDC analyst Ian Gibbs. Commercial notebook shipments were up 17.8 per cent year on year, marking the first time since Q2 2001 that notebook growth has been slower than that witnessed in the desktop segment.

By contrast, consumer notebook shipments were up 43.6 per cent year on year, well above the comparable desktop figure of 8.7 per cent. Crucially, that's all down to massive notebook price cuts which have taken low-end machines down to the £500 mark.

Dell remains the UK market leader, having overtaken HP in Q1. It saw shipments up 44.3 per cent year on year, more than double the industry average. HP's shipments were up 12.2 per cent year on year, but that still leaves its share of the market just 4.7 percentage points behind Dell.

Number four in the market, behind IBM, Fujitsu-Siemens was the growth leader, experiencing a 163.8 per cent year on year increase in unit shipments. IBM itself saw shipments up 48.6 per cent year on year, while fifth-placed NEC had a "slightly stifled" performance of 5.7 per cent growth.

Apple saw 16 per cent shipment growth year on year in consumer desktops and 14.2 per cent growth year on year in its shipments of commercial desktops, yielding an overall desktop shipment growth in the UK of 15 per cent year on year. Its combined notebook sales were up 41.3 per cent year on year, beating the industry average of 24.3 per cent. In the consumer notebook segments, it saw shipments rise 96.4 per cent year-on-year. The company took 2.5 per cent of the UK market in Q2. ®

Q2 UK PC Market
Rank	Vendor	Q2 04 Shipments	Q2 04 Market Share	Q2 03 Shipments	Q2 03 Market Share	Year-on-year growth
1	Dell	483,000	25.7%	334,600	21.6%	44.3%
2	HP	395,600	21%	352,700	22.8%	12.2%
3	IBM	103,700	5.5%	69,800	4.5%	48.6%
4	Fujitsu-Siemens	94,800	5%	36,000	2.3%	163.8%
5	NEC	91,700	4.9%	86,800	5.6%	6.3%
	Others	710,600	37.8%	668,200	43.2%	6.3%
	Total	1,879,400	100%	1,548,100	100%	21.4%

UK PC biz sees best growth for four years

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