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Europe's PC sales up in 1st half,seen accelerating
Reuters Story - August 01, 1997 08:09
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By Neil Winton, Science and Technology Correspondent
LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuter) - Sales of personal computers in
western Europe gathered pace in the first half of 1997, and are
likely to accelerate in the second half, a report published on
Friday said.
Compaq Computer Corp of the U.S. improved its
position as market leader with 14.6 per cent of sales, market
researcher CONTEXT said.
International Business Machines Corp retained its
distant second place with 9.3 percent, while Hewlett-Packard
was third with 6.2 percent.
Siemens Nixdorf of Germany was the top European
performer in fourth place with 5.8 percent.
West European sales in the first half rose 10.5 per cent to
8,575,959 PCs compared with the same period last year. Growth
spurted to 14.0 percent in the second quarter, substantialy
better than the first quarter's 7.5 percent, according to
CONTEXT.
"This is the result of the partial recovery of some of the
biggest European markets like France, Italy, Spain and Sweden,"
said Emmanuel Lalloz, senior PC research analyst at CONTEXT.
"If, as is likely, the consumer market grows stronger again
in the last quarter of this year, CONTEXT expects the second
half of 1997 to be even better, with growth approaching 15 to 16
per cent," Lalloz said.
This contrasts with market conditions at the end of the
first quarter, when CONTEXT said consumers were worried about
their prospects. Sales were also held back ahead of the
introduction of Intel Corp's new Pentium 2 chip which
was launched early in May.
Germany, Europe's biggest market, experienced moderate
growth with sales hitting 965,100 in the second quarter, 7.8
percent over the first three months. German sales are being
hampered by the economic recession, Lalloz said.
Britain, the second biggest market, grew by 12.1 percent in
the first half.
Lalloz said Compaq's powerful performance was due to its
increasingly aggressive pricing, and its improved distribution.
"IBM had problems with managing its inventory in Europe,
over-stocking desktop computers while not being able to supply
in the notebook market," Lalloz said.
"Siemens Nixdorf outperformed all its competitors in the
second quarter by achieving the highest year-on-year growth of
59.3 percent, with 248,324 PCs shipped."
Ailing Apple Computer of the U.S. held on to its
ninth place or three percent market share.
"This is partly a result of high sales in the education
sector, and of the success of the company's refocus on the
high-end market, and partly a consequence of improved logistics,
and stock control."
The rapid pace of change in personal computers has been a
serious constraint on sales, as individual consumers and small
businesses hold back to avoid being saddled with obsolete
technology.
According to Lalloz, companies like Compaq and
Hewlett-Packard, and particularly IBM, are trying to woo new
customers with leasing type deals, which include service and
also guarantee that computers will be updated to incorporate the
latest technology.
This would take some of the hesitancy from consumers, and
also allow suppliers to flatten out their volatile production
runs and cash flows, Lalloz said.
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