The EMEA PC market sees 2 consecutive quarters of decline during H2 2012-- Q4 2012 shipments drop by -9.6% Y-o-Y to reach 28.1 million units as the market continues to "face many headwinds."
As a result overall 2012 EMEA PC shipments drop by 2.8% from 2011. W. Europe remains the Achilles heel of the region, while C. and E. Europe and MEA see Q-o-Q growth.
“The holiday season mostly saw retailers clearing Windows 7 notebook inventory or driving volume of low-end notebooks," Gartner remarks. "Furthermore, the increasing choice of tablets at decreasing price points no doubt became a favorite Christmas present ahead of PCs.” In other words Windows 8 had zero impact on the holiday season due to Ultramobile products being both high in price and low in supply.
The analyst also suggests the tablet issue ranges beyond mere sales cannibalisation. Instead the PC landscape is shifting to one where individuals own tablets while a shared PC acts as a creative/administrative machine.
"We hypothesize that buyers will not replace secondary PCs in the household, instead allowing them to age out and shifting consumption to a tablet,” Gartner suggests.
Further EMEA details from a dismal Q4 2012-- mobile PC shipments drop by -11%, desktops by -6% Y-o-Y, the All-in-One (AiO) format shows some promise as a platform judging from Asus, Lenovo and HP models.
HP remains the top EMEA vendor with 19.1% market share, thanks to strong performance within the enterprise segment. Meanwhile Lenovo beats Acer to the #2 position, being the only vendor showing growth (29.4% Y-o-Y) during the period.
Acer shipments drop by -14.6% Y-o-Y to reach 3m units, followed by Asus (2.8m) and Dell (2.4m).
On a global scale, the PC Q4 2012 story remains roughly the same as WW shipments total 90.3m units with a 4.9% Y-o-Y decline-- the 1st Y-o-Y holiday season decline recorded by Gartner in over 5 years.
HP manages to retake the #1 position from Lenovo, even if shipments failed to show growth (instead declining by -0.5% Y-o-Y) to reach 14.6m units. Lenovo follows as the vendor with top Q4 2012 growth (8.2% Y-o-Y).
