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IDC Reports PC Sales Rise 15 Percent During Healthy 3rd Quarter in Europe, Middle East and Africa
PR Newswire - November 17, 1997 14:09
%CPR V%PRN P%PRN
Continued Rise in EMEA PC market, Despite Depressed Consumer Buying
LONDON, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Third quarter results for PC sales in the
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region looked more encouraging, after a
slow start to the year, reveals new research from International Data
Corporation (IDC). Shipments were up 15 percent over the same period the
previous year, with desktop sales to businesses, rather than to homes,
driving the EMEA market.
Reversing the usual trend, notebook sales grew at only half the rate of
desktops in the third quarter, partly due to supply shortages of most desired
portable models, and partly because of the comparatively low desktop prices,
attracting buyers away from notebooks. Intel-based PC servers shot ahead with
36 percent growth, as users' confidence grows in Windows NT-based systems,
which offer far better price/performance that their predecessors.
In the depressed German market -- which accounts for a quarter of the
Western European PC volume -- sales growth doubled compared with the previous
quarter, but still fell far short of the region average. The next two biggest
markets -- the UK and France -- by contrast saw growth of more than 15 percent
over last year, but for different reasons. France has been late to catch up
with home PCs, and an exceptionally large number of PCs were sold to French
households, whereas in the UK, businesses proved eager to upgrade their
systems. Sweden and Ireland both experienced lively growth -- well over
20 percent. Like most other country markets, they too were entirely reliant
on business sales for growth.
Though Compaq increased its lead in the EMEA region in Q3, it was by no
means the fastest riser: Hewlett-Packard and Siemens Nixdorf, both driving
hard into new country markets, pushed their sales up by 55 percent or more,
and Fujitsu forged ahead also. IBM stood out as the only big brand of the
current top 10 not to make substantial gains compared with Q3 1996,
particularly on home PC sales. Apple, AST and Olivetti have now dropped
out of the top 10 leading PC vendors.
Hewlett-Packard, which concentrated efforts in Q3 on boosting its share in
markets where it is less strong, more than doubled PC shipments in the
Middle East/Africa, as well as in eastern Europe. Following the same tack,
SNI also increased share dramatically in these regions, but from a lower
base the previous year. IBM, on the other hand removed focus, and was only
in 6th place in each region, selling fewer machines than the year before.
Outside Western Europe, local brands such as Russia's Vist and Israel's
Mecer are still much more in evidence in the top 10.
In the Middle East/Africa region, Saudi Arabia and Turkey again showed
fastest growth over the previous year, with the biggest markets, Israel
and South Africa, in line with the EMEA average. In Israel the government
'unfroze' budgets from the first part of the year, but this growth was offset
by low home sales. The Internet has turned into an important drive in Saudi
Arabia. The region as a whole is fragmented to the extent that no one had
more than nine percent share in Q3 and half the sales were made by vendors
outside the top 10. Altogether the Middle East/Africa PC market was up
24 percent over Q3 1996, but with a flat notebook segment, partly due to poor
sales in South Africa.
Eastern Europe also prospered with a 19 percent lift, but here notebook
growth outpaced that for desktops. PC servers, too, are catching on fast
and were in line with Western Europe in growth terms. Amongst the main
Eastern European markets, the Czech Republic was the only failure, suffering
its 3rd consecutive quarter of stagnation, with government and consumer sales
down, and purchases swinging towards the largest brands. Meanwhile, Hungary,
Poland and Russia thrived. Local assemblers saw strong growth in Russia with
buyers? confidence riding high. Sales were up 24 percent in Hungary, as the
economy recovers after two lean years and, again with a positive economic
background, the Polish PC market capped even Q2 sales. In the third quarter,
Eastern Europe represented one tenth of the total EMEA market.
About IDC
Headquartered in Framingham, Mass., International Data Corporation
provides IT market research and consulting to more than 3,900 high-technology
customers around the world. With a global network of 300 analysts in more
than 40 countries, IDC is the industry's most comprehensive resource on
worldwide IT markets, products, vendors, and geographies.
IDC/LINK, an IDC subsidiary, researches and analyzes the home computing
market, leading-edge technologies in telecommunications and new media, and
the convergence of computing and consumer electronics.
IDC's World Wide Web site (http://www.idc.com) contains additional company
information and recent news releases, and offers full-text searching of
recent research.
IDC is a division of International Data Group, the world's leading IT
media, research and exposition company.
All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective holders.
SOURCE International Data Corporation
/CONTACT: Meryl Salter of IDC, 44-181-987-7109, msalter@idcresearch.com/
/Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax, 800-758-5804,
ext. 113987/
/Web site: idcresearch.com
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