European PC market boosted by small devices

Netbooks and mini-notebooks are holding up the PC industry, according to analysts

Notebook sales propped up the European PC market

Strong sales of netbooks and mini-notebooks during the Christmas period helped to offset poor European PC sales through the year, according to IDC.

The analyst firm said that throughout the year PC sales in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region were disappointing, with growth rising by a lowly 1.8 per cent after some eight years of significant double digit growth. Although sales in Western Europe were fairly strong, they were still a disappointment.

"As expected, the Christmas season saw continued uptake of mini-notebooks driven by strong vendor push, with several manufacturers launching new products from October onwards, stimulating fierce competition for retail shelf space," said Eszter Morvay, senior research analyst at IDC.

"However, telco operators also drove strong momentum, with both first- and second-tier players setting up new partnerships and offering heavily subsidised mini-notebooks. And while standard portable sales slowed down, mini-notebooks will continue to drive market expansion and multi-equipment trends in Europe in 2009."

Central Eastern Europe (CEE) faired less well, according to Stefania Lorenz, director for IDC's systems research department.

"Desktop shipments plunged by 36 per cent and notebooks by 4.7 per cent. CEE's largest markets suffered credit availability in addition to the large stock of notebooks built in third quarter 2008. Middle East and Africa remained just afloat, reporting 0.1 per cent growth year on year thanks to the notebook market," she said.

HP performed the best of all vendors, ending the year with a 21 per cent growth rate, which IDC again attributed to Christmas sales.