Slow consumer demand in Western Europe resulted in a continued contraction of the PC market in the EMEA region, according to IDC's PC Tracker report.
Retained inventory slowed sales into the channel resulting in a 8.9 per cent downturn in PC shipments into region compared with the same quarter last year. By contrast, Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East continued to grow, boosted by strong demand for portable PCs.
They were not enough to offset the heavy 20.9 per cent decline of Western Europe, however. IDC said that other devices such as smartphones and tablets contributed to the downturn in PC sales. IDC put the Western Europe consumer sell-in decline at a shocking 32.2 per cent.
IDC warned that demand was set to remain "lackluster" and such that there was would be focused on media tablets. The firm said broader availability of competing models would result in "fierce" competition between vendors resulting in a price war.
The enterprise market faired better, IDC said, falling just 4.3 per cent. The market analysis firm 'encouraging signs' of Windows-based tablet adoption in the commercial sector. 20,000 were shipped in the quarter, sharply up from 5,000 a year ago.
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