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Ongoing changes in the PC operating system mix contributed to a rise in distributors’ average sell prices (ASPs), according to new research from Context.
Following quarter-on-quarter increases throughout 2015 – driven by declining Bing volumes, growing Windows 10 sales, and industry efforts to bring PC prices up in order to offset the effects of the weakening euro on PC margins – PC ASPs stood at €506 in Q1 2016.
PC ASPs are up by 8 per cent year-on-year. As a result, PC revenues were down by only 1 per cent during the quarter in spite of the 9 per cent drop in volume sales.
"Q1 2016 was a challenging quarter for PCs in Western European distribution,” said Marie-Christine Pygott, senior analyst at Context.
“Year-on-year sales were impacted by a strong compare and weak conditions in some of the segments. On a positive note, PC pricing was up compared to last year and there was continued growth in a number of areas, including the new hybrid mobile PCs."?
The research reveals that the decline is partly the result of strong performance in the same quarter last year when low-end notebooks based on Microsoft’s Windows with Bing operating system helped overall PC sales to grow by 14 per cent.
The Bing share in the notebook segment dropped from 17 per cent in Q1 2015 to 0.4 per cent this year, making notebooks the most significant contributor to the decline in terms of product categories.
Notebook volume sales were down by 10 per cent year-on-year, while sales of desktops declined at the smaller rate of 7 per cent.
