European PC market on the up as HP and Lenovo lead the way

IDC data underlines market trend for new PC purchases after XP's demise

The PC market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) saw its first quarter of growth for seven quarters as shipments rose by 10.5 percent, according to data from IDC.

The analyst house said 21.9 million units were shipped in the second quarter of the year, matching recent figures from rival Gartner. Western Europe led the growth with a 25 percent increase in shipments as firms finally started buying again. This strong growth was complemented slightly by a one percent rise in the Middle East and this helped offset a 13.2 percent decline in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

IDC said the end of support for XP led much of this growth, especially among smaller firms that finally bit the bullet and bought new hardware, according to IDC senior research analyst Maciej Gornicki.

"The lack of investments in PC renewals during the past two years contributed to an ageing installed base across the commercial market and, together with the end of Windows XP support, this generated large renewal needs," he said

"As the macroeconomic outlook improved in most Western European countries, large enterprises regained confidence and started to replace their PCs, while many companies in the SMB segment reacted late to the change in the operating system.

He added that growth could continue as firm may also star investing in portable devices too, such as laptops for their staff.

HP leads the way
HP benefitted strongly from this with 27.2 percent growth over the quarter compared with the same period last year. It shipped 4.735 million units, up from 3.7 in the year-ago quarter, giving it 21.7 percent of the market. This was also up marginally on Q1 2014, when it shipped 4.702 million devices.

IDC said it was clear HP was executing well on its strategy of pushing new models into both consumer and enterprise markets, and it could see more growth in the quarters to come.

Lenovo took second with 18 percent of the market, up strongly on the 13.2 percent it had last year, as it saw shipment growth of 51 percent, with 3.9 millions units sent to market. This was also up on Q1 when 3.5 million units were shipped.

Third went to Acer, with 2.5 million shipments and a 11.6 percent market share, while Dell took fourth, with 10.5 percent of the market and 2.3 million shipments. The fifth largest was Asus with 9.5 percent of the market on 2.1 million shipments.

The best of the 'other' category, which totaled 6.3 million shipments, was Apple in sixth place, while Samsung, its bitter rival, placed tenth, after a period of decline, due to its lack of investment around it Chromebook line of devices.