Gartner reports Q2 2012 EMEA PC shipments total 25.1 million units-- a 1.9% Y-o-Y increase, with "very weak" demand across both W. and S. Europe as the eurozone crisis continues growing.
As a result, distributors might end up with greater inventory levels while retailers take the (perhaps wise) risk adverse approach. This can hinder future growth before Windows 8 and new Ultrabook models hit the market sometime around H2 2012.
The global situation is not any better-- according to Gartner, the Q2 2012 WW PC market is virtually flat. Shipments reach 87.5m and decline by -0.1%, the 7th consecutive quarter of flat to single-digit WW growth.
"Despite the high expectations for Ultrabooks shipment volume was small and little impact on overall shipment growth,” the analyst remarks.
Customers also prefer spending on non-PC (or post-PC) technologies-- chiefly smartphones and tablets.
In the global vendor rankings HP remains on top with 14.9% WW Q2 2012 market share, despite -12.1% Y-o-Y shipment declines. Gartner says HP is still going through internal issues (due to organisational changes) and the HP PC business is not back to pre re-structuring levels.
Lenovo comes 2nd and exceeds the WW average with 14.9% Y-o-Y growth, thanks to an aggressive acquisition and pricing strategy. The company shows "significant growth" in EMEA, even if Gartner talks of concerns of inventory build towards H2 2012.
Acer manages to grow by 3.6% Y-o-Y while clearing earlier inventory issues. As one of the first vendors selling Ultrabooks, Acer will probably also be one of the first to lower Ultrabook prices as it keeps busy selling tablets.
If one follows Dell (4th in the rankings) news, one can see the PC supplier transforming into an enterprise solution provider-- with PC shipment declines (-11.5%) across all territories.
In 5th place is Asus with strong 38.6% Y-o-Y growth. The diverse product portfolio helps the company find success in EMEA, with a mini-notebook expansion leading towards the mid- and high-end notebook markets.
