ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

Despite the Windows 8 launch all PC segments show decline in W. Europe during Q2 2013 CONTEXT reports, as clumsy channel marketing and lack of attractively priced touch-based products undermine the potency of Windows 8 as a PC flagship.

“Demand for Windows 8 was not channeled particularly skilfully with mixed press prior to launch, insufficient marketing activity at store level as well as low availability of touch systems,” the analyst remarks.

CONTEXT does mention "some positives" for the period-- clamshell notebooks record a "lesser decline" and a Windows 7/8 upgrade scheme (free Windows 8 license upgrade for customers buying pre-installed Windows 7 Pro) created at least some demand.

Darty reports a -66% drop in profits for the financial year ending April 2013 to €26.4 million, down from €78m from the previous year, as a weak economy and online sales continues to affect European retail.

Excluding Spain, Darty profits total €43.4m, compared to €94.2m for the previous FY.

Group revenues drop by -1.1% on a like-for-like basis and by -2.5% in constant currency to €3.8 billion, while losses reach €105.3m including discontinued operations and after exceptional costs worth €115.3m.

Supposedly leaked roadmap presentation slides reveal the next Intel Haswell product, code-named Haswell-E-- an update on the company's high-end desktop (HEDT) platform complete with more physical cores among other improvements.

According to VR-Zone Haswell-E does away with 4-core CPUs in favour of 6- and 8-core chips with up to 20MB of L3 cache built using the 22nm process.

Hyper Threading gives the CPU a maximum of 16 logical cores, while maximum TDP ranges from 130W to 140W.

The desktop platform is supposed to rely on the "Wellsburg" motherboard chipset, with the LGA2011-3 socket handling quad-channel DDR4 RAM (2133MHz maximum clock speed, up to one DIMM per channel).

HP announces a change in leadership for the Printing and Personal Systems (PSS) unit-- after little more than a year executive VP Todd Bradley steps down from the role to assume leadership of Strategic Growth Initiatives.

In his new position Bradley will work with HP CEO Meg Whitman on boosting business in China and "extending the company’s critical channel partner relationships around the world."

“There’s nothing more important to HP than our channel partners and the future of our business in China,” Whitman says. “I’ve asked Todd to use his expertise to focus on these areas. I’ve also asked him to study the landscape of small companies and startups that could partner with HP to spur growth.”

Taking over PSS from Bradley is former Acer UK managing director and Lenovo VP (not to mention current HP PPS Asia Pacific and Japan senior VP) Dion Weisler.