PC sales in Europe up 23% in q3.
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updated 12:00 p.m. 5.Nov.98.PST
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PC Sellers Love Europe
Reuters
7:34 a.m. 4.Nov.98.PST
European personal computer sales surged ahead 23.4 percent in the third quarter as consumers snapped up low-priced machines, market watcher Dataquest said on Wednesday.
Consumer PC unit sales soared 48.8 percent, including a rise of 54 percent in Western Europe, but the news was not completely rosy for PC manufacturers: Revenue growth in Europe trailed well behind at 13 percent, as about one-third of all PCs sold in Europe were low-cost machines priced between US$1,000 and $1,500.
"It was a record quarter in terms of consumer market growth. That's what was driving the market," said Dataquest analyst Philip Williams, who predicted the market's growth was likely to continue for a few more quarters despite the recent world economic slowdown.
Williams said many manufacturers have adjusted to lower average selling prices to continue turning profit. Compaq, for example, recently handed production of German consumer PCs to a small Dresden company to lower costs.
On the strength of recovering economies, European unit sales surged in the three largest markets. German PC sales climbed 22.4 percent to 1.2 million units, British sales advanced 28.3 percent to more than a million, while French sales increased 34.6 percent to just short of 800,000.
Compaq (CPQ) retained the top market share spot, increasing its hold to 17.4 percent as its sales rose 33.4 percent. Dell (DELL) climbed into a second place tie with IBM. The direct marketer's sales jumped 86 percent, lifting its market share to 8.1 percent. IBM (IBM) sales grew 31 percent, although its share was unchanged at 8.1 percent. In fourth place was Siemens with a 6.3 percent share, followed by Hewlett-Packard (HWP) with 6.2 percent.
Apple (AAPL) unit sales rose 25 percent, although its fast-selling iMac model only hit store shelves in September, the quarter's final month. Despite the gain, Apple remained off the list of top 10 PC vendors with a market share of 2.8 percent.
Copyright©1998 Reuters Limited.
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