The UK mobile PC market has lost 25 percent of its volume since 2010, according to latest figures from Gartner (NYSE: IT).
PC shipments in the UK totalled almost 2.2 million units in the first quarter of 2013, a decrease of 13 per cent from the corresponding period in 2012.
“The second quarter marked the 11th consecutive quarter of decline in the UK,” explains Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “During this time the notebook market has shrunk nearly 25 percent in unit volume. The UK notebook market totalled over 2m units in the second quarter of 2010 and has now reached just under 1.5munits.”
The consumer PC market continued to show a double-digit decline. It dropped by 25 percent in the second quarter of 2013. “The decline was partly due to the transition of product lines as vendors made room for Haswell-based products due out later in the year,” says Atwal.
By comparison the professional PC market declined two percent as businesses continued to migrate to Windows 7.
“After several depressing years the PC vendors are now at a make or break point in this industry,” comments Atwal. “The product transition involving both hardware and the upgrade of Windows 8.1 needs to reverse the steep declines we have seen in the PC market.”
The top three vendors benefited from the improved performance of the professional PC market, which declined below the market average rate. HP remained the PC leader in the UK with a 19.9 percent share in the second quarter of 2013. Dell held onto the No. 2 position with a modest decline of 1.2 percent in the same period. Lenovo grew in both the professional and consumer PC markets, and doubled its household market share — which grew nearly 29 percent in the UK.
“Apple, ranked in the No. 6 position, managed to exhibit a decline below the market average rate, while Samsung saw the biggest impact of the improved performance of the professional PC market with a decline of over 50 percent,” adds Atwal.
United Kingdom: PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q13 (Thousands of Units)
| Vendor | 2Q13 Shipments | 2Q13 Market Share (%) | 2Q12 Shipments | 2Q12 Market Share (%) | 2Q12-2Q13 Growth (%) |
| HP | 436 | 19.9 | 468 | 18.5 | -6.9 |
| Dell | 310 | 14.1 | 313 | 12.4 | -1.2 |
| Lenovo | 234 | 10.7 | 182 | 7.2 | 28.6 |
| Acer | 230 | 10.5 | 293 | 11.6 | -21.4 |
| Toshiba | 196 | 8.9 | 238 | 9.4 | -17.7 |
| Others | 789 | 36.0 | 1,029 | 40.8 | -23.3 |
| Total | 2,195.0 | 100.0 | 2,523 | 100.0 | -13.0 |
Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Media tablets are excluded.
Source: Gartner (August 2013)
PC shipments in Western Europe totalled 10.9m units in the second quarter of 2013, a decline of 19.8 percent compared with the same period in 2012, according to Gartner.
“The market exit of the netbook PC, and vendors reducing their inventory to get the new Intel chips and Windows 8.1 have fuelled the decline in Western Europe,” comments Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner.
