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

Whereas Gartner has divided out tablets (leaving PC sales down for the first time since Q3 2009), Canalys decides to leave tablets in and show WW PC sales up 7.7%, with shipments reaching 88.6m units.

Meanwhile WW PC shipments for Q1 2011 total 84.3m units-- a 1.1% Y-o-Y. That means tablets could reflect 9% of total PC sales.

HP still leads the WW market, with 16.6% share (down by -5.8% from Q1 2010). Following are Acer (12.8% market share and -6.5% Y-o-Y growth) and Dell (11.3% market share and 2.8% Y-o-Y growth).

Apple makes in the top 5, reaching 4th place with 9.5% market share and impressive 187.9% growth-- again thanks to tablet shipments. The iPad and its sequel account for 74% of WW Q1 2011 tablet shipments (from total tablet shipments reaching 6.4m units).

Canalys predicts the tablet scene will see significant changes in the following months, as rival products from the likes of Acer, Asus, LG and RIM start hitting the market.

Of course, the tablet's rise comes at the expense of notebook and netbook shipments-- the analyst says W.European customers use their tablets as PCs, rather than as a media player or e-reader. The most common tablet functions include web browsing, email/messaging and social networking.

The analyst concludes tablets can represent "a real threat to PC and consumer electronics vendors"-- through its replacing traditional devices, including netbooks. Retailers should take note, and stock appropriately.

Go WW PC Market Up 7% as Pads Fuel Growth

Seagate unveils what it calls the world's first 3.5" HDD with 1TB of storage per disk platter-- taking Samsung's 625 Gigabits per square inch technology and putting it in an actual product.

The first devices to carry the technology will make part of the GoFlex external HDD range, with Seagate first shipping its Barracuda XT drives in 3TB, 2TB, 1.5TB and 1TB capacities.

GoFlex HDDs are Windows and Mac compatible, with sleek black 3.5" designs sitting either vertically or horizontally for any desktop environment.

Go Seagate Breaks Areal Density Barrier

Yarvik takes on the tablet market with a lightweight 7" Android, the TAB210.

It comes with Android 2.1, a resistive touch screen (800 x 480 resolution) and, rather unusually, a scroll wheel allowing users to scroll through their files. It comes with 4GB of memory (expandable via Micro-SD card) as well as a 600 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM.

Meanwhile internet connections come via wifi.

The company claims its battery has a life of up to 4 hours for video (or up to 14 hours for music).

Go Yarvik

Dubai's Sharaf DG plans to expand towards the GCC and other countries in the Middle East within the next 5 years, MD Yasser Sharaf tells Khaleej Times in an interview.

The retailer expects open a second Abu Dhabi outlet next month, and wants to enter Fujairah, Ajman and Ras Al Khaima later this year.

It will, however, be reconsidering at least part of its expansion plans into countries currently hit by political unrest-- particularly Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. The retailer's expansion into Bahrain is already on hold, again due to unrest in the country.

The interview also provides some insight on the UAE's CE market-- with an estimate size of around $12.72BN for 2010 (and 20% growth for the same year) and consumers wanting to buy the market's best and latest available products (including LED screens and tablets).

Sharaf says the retailer records 23% sales growth for Q1 2011, and is positive it will sustain such growth through the rest of the year, with 1m customers visiting Sharaf DG stores each month.

Go Sharaf DG to Review GCC Expansions

Go Sharaf DG