ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

Global PC storage device shipments total 248.8M units in Q2 2011 with a Y-o-Y increase of 5.6% (from 235.5M units in Q2 2010), according to IHS iSuppli.

Contrary to analyst expectations, the earthquake disaster in Japan last March stimulated the storage market-- with OEMs accelerating orders and increasing inventory to ensure adequate supply.

The analyst divides the PC storage market in 3 segments-- HDDs (hard drives), ODDs (optical disc drives) and SSDs (solid state drives).

The HDD segment is the largest, total-wise, with shipments reaching 167.7M units (a Q-o-Q increase of 4.2%). However iSuppli says the HDD industry faces declining profits (particularly by the two major HDD players, Seagate and Western Digital) due to higher competition, elevated R&D costs and mounting costs for materials such as rare-earth metals.

ODD shipments rise by 4.4% Q-o-Q to reach 78.3M units-- but revenues remain flat due to declining prices. Some PC makers are also abandoning optical drives in certain machines, such as ultra-thin laptops.

The SSD segment shows most growth, with shipments reaching 3.4M units with 21.4% Q-o-Q growth as NAND caching technology from Intel makes its consumer market debut.

The analyst believes SSDs "are experiencing teething pains," with a supplier base thinning necessary for the market to achieve more sustainable dynamics with healthy revenues and margins.

Go IHS iSuppli Storage Market Tracker

Media-Saturn closes shop in Greece with immediate effect-- shutting down 2 big Greek Saturn outlets at Larissa Station (central Athens) and Pylaia (Thessaloniki), the Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports.

The retailer will also pass 3 Saturn stores to sister chain Media Markt-- even if Media Markt is also shutting down an outlet in southern Athens.

The Media-Saturn venture in Greece left little profit for the Metro group-- with turnovers dropping by -25% Y-o-Y within 2 years, making the Saturn departure fairly predictable.

The April-June 2011 period had Metro reporting revenue losses totalling -€44M in comparison to the same period in 2010, as CE demand declines further.

Go Saturn Leaves Greek Electrical Goods Market (ekathimerini.com)

The Wall Street Journal reports HP may not carry out the PC part of Great Garage Sale after all, as post-Apotheker CEO Meg Whitman is currently busy "crunching the numbers of the proposal by her predecessor."

Whitman wants to make the decision regarding the HP PC division's fate by the end of October.

Apotheker wanted to turn HP into something like IBM, selling hardware and software to an enterprise client base. IBM sold off its PC business to Lenovo back in 2005.

The PC business totals $40 billion from a $126BN in HP 2010 sales, and $2BN from $8.8BN in net profit-- and "spin off costs might outweigh the benefits," the WSJ sources say.

A lot of analysts say HP lacks the resources to go IBM-style, while keeping a big PC business also keeps component prices down.

What will the future hold for HP, then? It might as well keep on going as it does now, only with tighter reigns on. No word yet on the future of the Palm webOS business, though.

Go HP Rethinks PC Spinoff (WSJ.com, subscription required)

Go Out of PC Business: HP's Garage Sale

CONTEXT reports both European consumer and business PC sales (excluding tablets) continue struggling in Q3 2011, as sales revenues decline by -11% Y-o-Y while vendors and distributors slash prices in order to clear unsold inventory.

The analyst says PC sales from the top distributors in Europe (representing approximately 50% of Q3 2011 sales) are up by 9%-- however average selling prices are down by an average of -10%.

Meanwhile consumer PC demand (including desktops, netbooks and notebooks) continues languishing, as European consumer sales are down by -18% Y-o-Y.

According to CONTEXT, the worst hit regions are those down south-- Italian PC sales fall by -10% Y-o-Y (with revenues down -21%), while Spanish PC sales fall by -7% and revenues by -15%.

Go CONTEXT: European PC Revenues Down 11%