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UK PC sales up despite economic pressures

by Ben Furfie
Monday, July 21st 2008 at 12:01PM

UK PC sales up despite economic pressures Notebook sales continued to drive the UK computer market in the second quarter according to the latest figures from IDC, with laptops accounting for just under two-thirds of all purchases, reported HEXUS.channel.

Overall, 2.73 million units were sold during the second quarter, with 1.73 million laptops and 970,000 desktops purchased during the three months till June 30th.

Sales of laptops were evenly split between business and consumer sales at 840,000 and 915,000 respectively. However, it was consumer sales that saw the biggest jump, up 85.5 per cent. Business sales also saw a substantial jump, although it wasn't as impressive as that of consumer sales at 38.3 per cent.

Desktops continued their decline, with overall sales down eight per cent. Business sales were down by 5.8 per cent during the period, however, it was consumer sales that were hit the hardest with purchases down 12.2 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Price continued to be the determining factor, as IDC analyst Lucie Jichova explained to PC Retail earlier in the month.

It was a point backed up by senior research analyst at IDC Eszter Morvay. "People have been expecting an economic slowdown to impact the market in Q1, but it has happened. We were a bit surprised at the data because everyone has been talking about a slowdown, but all the major OEMs are still very optimistic."

Pointing towards the effect pricing pressures are having on sales, Morvay added: "OEMs are bringing out special SKUs for the UK market because people don't want to pay for better specs," she added.

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Tags: PCs, Laptops, Business, idc, consumer, notebook

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