European Q2 PC sales results from CONTEXT. Note DELL's country by country performance.
Press Release
27 July 1998
Western European PC Shipments Grow 19% in Q2 98 with High Inventory Levels Clearing
According to preliminary data released today by industry analysts CONTEXT, the Western European PC market followed a good first quarter with 19.2 per cent growth in volume in the second quarter of 1998, to 5,198,720 units, compared to the same period one year ago, in spite of stagnation in some countries' consumer segments. High inventory levels built up during the first quarter were largely cleared.
Performance in the three largest markets overall was good.
* The UK registered a growth rate of 24.6 per cent.
* France reached 20 per cent.
* Germany increased slightly to 11.2 per cent.
The UK market maintained high growth rates achieved in the first quarter despite doubts over the future of the economy and fears of the effect of a high-value pound.
The French PC market also continued to grow steadily. Although the PC business in France seemed negatively affected by the World Cup, high sales were still achieved in the small and medium business sector. Sales in this area are expected to become even stronger over the next couple of quarters, with government schemes to support the medical and educational sector fully functioning by September. The consumer market, suffering somewhat with customers' attention having been temporarily diverted by World Cup activity, is also expected to take off again over the next few months.
Germany, Europe's biggest PC market, exceeded the growth rate achieved in the first quarter. The consumer market was still depressed due to continuing price wars and increasingly fierce competition from food chain PC sales. The corporate sector, however, continued to grow steadily thanks to a more relaxed economic situation and an increasing IT demand from small and medium sized businesses.
The Netherlands, growing at a rate of 20 per cent compared to the second quarter of 1997, continued to profit from a very healthy economy which has seen steadily dropping unemployment figures for a few quarters, and is likely to remain stable under a new government elected in May.
Spain, growing at a rate of 15.4 per cent, did less well than expected, especially following a very good first quarter. However, growth was still satisfactory and is expected to remain steady over the next few quarters. Although clone assembly is on the increase, there seems to be a trend for the corporate sector and institutions to move towards only purchasing major PC brands.
Italy, like Spain, could not achieve its high Q1 growth rate but still grew at 10.7 per cent. A clear trend towards major PC brands can also be seen here, with virtually no price differences anymore between clone PCs and major PC brands and users choosing the latter ones.
A country with exceptionally high growth this quarter was Sweden, which had a 43 per cent growth rate and thus even out-performed the high growth achieved in the first quarter. This is mainly due to the 'Employee Purchase' government scheme already in place last quarter, which enables companies to sell PCs to their employees at very low prices.
Overall, the second quarter was characterised by a high growth in the small and medium sized business segment, compensating for the partly stagnating consumer markets, and enjoying a continuous rise in Government IT spending with a trend towards major PC brand sales as the latter begin to reach the price points of "no-name" PCs.
The consolidation around top PC manufacturers continues, a trend reinforced with the Digital acquisition by Compaq. The top five vendors are Compaq (including Digital), IBM, Dell, HP and SNI which, altogether, grew 29.3 per cent year-over-year, ten points above average market growth. Their consolidated share increased from 42.7 per cent in Q2 1997 to 46.3 per cent in Q2 this year. Overall in Q2 1998, the top five vendors have shipped 2.407 million PCs.
Dell and Fujitsu were by far the best performers in the second quarter, achieving unit growth of 85.4 per cent and 72.1 per cent respectively.
Dell achieved overall best growth performance with 451,232 PCs shipped in the second quarter, compared to 243,415 units in the same quarter last year, 85.4 per cent growth year over year. As a result, from being number 5 one year ago, Dell jumps to second position in Q2 with 8.7 per cent share of the Western European PC market, behind Compaq.
Dell also grew very strongly in the Nordic countries and the Netherlands. The vendor shipped 63,000 units in Sweden this quarter (+322 per cent growth year over year), and grew 138.7 per cent to 6,062 units in Denmark. In the Netherlands, 43,721 units were shipped, a 139.3 per cent growth over last year. Dell did well in the bigger countries too: UK grew 61.7 per cent (148,315 units), France grew 67.9 per cent (60,693 units) and Germany grew 43.2 per cent (54,405 units).
Fujitsu had their fourth quarter of very high growth in a row, and their second quarter of +70 per cent unit growth. The vendor shipped 229,005 PCs in the second quarter in Western Europe, which gives them a 4.4 per cent share. Fujitsu particularly achieved very good results in the larger markets. Germany, by far their biggest country with 121,158 units shipped, grew +151.3 per cent, UK grew +103.9 per cent, the Netherlands, +83.3 per cent, Switzerland +61.1 per cent and France +46.3 per cent.
In the top ten, Compaq (including Digital), SNI and Toshiba also out-performed the market with unit growth between 25 and 30 per cent.
Compaq continues to strengthen its leadership position in the Western European PC market. The vendor (including Digital) shipped 919,055 PCs in Western Europe, 28.5 per cent more units than a year ago (203,000 PCs). The consolidated share of Compaq is now 17.7 per cent, twice the share of their nearest competitor (468,000 units more).
Toshiba shipped 217,212 PCs in the European markets in the second quarter, 28.6 per cent more than last year. The leader in the portable market, Toshiba has seen sales of their professional desktop line take off this quarter.
Siemens Nixdorf is in fifth position with 310,295 PCs shipped this quarter, which gives the German manufacturer a 6.0 per cent share of the PC market.
A number of manufacturers in the top ten experienced moderate growth. Ranking third overall, IBM secured a 7.8 per cent share of the European PC market, but only grew 10.8 per cent on last year, to 405,817 PCs.
Packard Bell - NEC ranks eighth behind Toshiba in the second quarter, with 3.8 per cent share. The vendor grew 10.1 per cent on last year only, mainly as a result of seasonal fluctuations in sales to consumers.
Hewlett-Packard had disappointing results overall in the second quarter. HP shipped 320,731 PCs, an 11.1 per cent rise on last year, and a 24 per cent fall on the first quarter.
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