IDC: EMEA Traditional PC Market Stabilizes

IDC: EMEA Traditional PC Market Stabilizes
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The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) traditional PC market (desktops, notebooks, and workstations) was almost flat in the third quarter of 2017, with the market remaining slightly negative (-0.5%) and totaling 17.7 million units, according to IDC.

The commercial space posted slight growth (0.1%) due to enterprise renewals and education deals, while holiday season promotions and gaming increased volume in the consumer segment. Notebooks performed positively across EMEA (+0.3%) with strong growth in CEE (+5.6%), though they remained negative for both MEA (-4.0%) and Western Europe (-0.1%). On the other hand, desktops were stronger in EMEA, eroding at a softer rate (-2.9%) with strong commercial demand across CEE (+8.0%).

In Western Europe, the overall traditional PC market contracted 1.3% YoY. Notebooks declined 0.1% YoY after several quarters of positive performance. On the other hand, although remaining negative, desktops showed some strength and decreased just 5.2% YoY.

Southern Europe led growth, with France, Spain, and Portugal growing at 1.8%, 5.9%, and 32.2% respectively, followed by Benelux (2.7%). The U.K. is still negative, but it performed above expectations with a 2.7% decrease.

On the other hand, the Nordics declined 3.2% with Sweden decreasing the most in terms of volume (-4.1%). DACH also performed negatively, with Germany declining in volume by 2.9%. The consumer PC market declined by 2.0%, although some back-to-school deals and demand for thin and light solutions are driving the segment. In addition, preparations for holiday promotions helped boost volumes for consumers.

On the other hand, the commercial space declined by 0.8%, though it benefited from the acceleration of Windows 10 adoption in large and very large enterprises and the continued adoption of portable form factors, especially convertibles, that offer greater mobility and flexibility.

"In line with the latest forecast the CEMA region reported flat growth of 1.0% YoY," said Nikolina Jurisic, product manager, IDC CEMA. "The CEE region continues to gain momentum, posting overall growth of 6.4% YoY, thanks to healthy demand from both the consumer and commercial sectors. The overall desktop market recorded further strong growth of 8.1% YoY. Demand was mostly driven by a few large deals across the region in both the corporate and public sectors, while the consumer sector saw a marginal yearly decline of 0.5% YoY," added Jurisic.

"Gaming products are making inroads in the region, despite still limited volumes. The notebook market maintained healthy growth of 5.6% YoY driven by demand in the consumer space. There was a different picture for the MEA region, where the overall traditional PC sector remains constrained, reporting a 4.5% YoY decline. The corporate and government sectors offset the overall PC decline. Demand from the consumer space remains constrained across nearly all countries in the region," said Jurisic.

Traditional PC market consolidation is still progressing, and the top 3 vendors' share continued to grow in 2017Q3. The top 3 players accounted for 60.2% of the total market volume, compared with 57.0% in 2016Q3. HP remained the largest vendor in EMEA, gaining 1.3% market share YoY to reach 27.2%. Robust notebook performance combined with strong desktop results supported some of the gains.

Lenovo continued in second spot, securing 21.3% market share (up by 1.2% YoY), primarily driven by notebooks and desktops in the commercial space, where the company clearly outperformed the market. Dell retained its third position with a market share of 11.7% (up 0.8% YoY). In addition to solid growth of notebooks and desktops in the commercial space, strong notebook results in the consumer segment boosted growth.

ASUS faced another challenging quarter, with 8.9% market share. Its desktops declined further, but the company continued to consolidate its position in the notebook space in CEMA. Acer ranked fifth, with 8.4% market share, mainly driven down by Western Europe and MEA. In CEE, however, the vendor reported double-digit growth demonstrating its stronger foothold.

Top 5 Companies EMEA Traditional PC Shipments 2017Q3 (Preliminary)

Company

2016Q3 Shipments

2017Q3 Shipments

2016Q3 Share

2017Q3 Share

YoY Growth

HP Inc.

4,635

4,837

26.0%

27.2%

4.4%

Lenovo

3,592

3,783

20.1%

21.3%

5.3%

Dell Inc.

1,942

1,943

10.9%

11.7%

6.8%

ASUS

1,833

1,570

10.3%

8.9%

-13.6%

Acer Group

1,699

1,491

9.5%

8.4%

-12.2%

Others

4,154

3,993

23.3%

22.5%

-3.9%

Total

17,854

17,761

100.0%

100.0%

-0.5%