'New' Europe goes on PC-buying bender

Eastern European governments and companies kitting themselves out for EU membership have boosted European PC sales growth back to the glory days before the millennium turned.

According to research firm Context, volumes of PCs sold in Europe in the first quarter of this year jumped by 20 per cent. Left on its own, 'old' Europe could just manage a 13 per cent rise but demand from the East, mostly the Polish and Czechs, have pushed the growth to levels not seen for years.

Jeremy Davies, senior partner at Context, said: "This is mostly fuelled by government spending - there are funds available for adjusting to the accession. And as most of them are big deals, we won't know the value of the shipments for some time."

He added that the shipments were likely to be full-spec machines rather than the bottom-of-the-range equipment that made up East European purchases five years ago.

As manufacturers go, Acer reaped the advantage of its Czech assembly plant and saw its volumes leap by 77 per cent. Dell led the rest of the pack at 36 per cent growth; Siemens turned in a respectable 24 per cent growth and HP, hobbled by desktop performance, managed 13 per cent.

Davies said: "Overall, the market is picking up. It's time for all those 1999/millenium machines to be replaced and there are more funds available this year, especially if you can show an efficiency or productivity gain.

"All in all, it could be a reasonable 2004."