PC market totters towards a recovery

The PC market is showing signs of a recovery, with strong demand from smaller businesses helping it grow for the first time in over a year.

Preliminary figures from IDC show that PC shipments grew by 3.3 per cent in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in the third quarter of 2002 compared with the same period in 2001.

The market's moderate positive growth looks encouraging when set against a 9.4 per cent contraction recorded in the third quarter last year.

Cautious attitudes continue to prevail in the corporate sector, according to IDC, and although essential renewals are taking place, driving both desktop and notebook sales, signs of a major recovery remain limited.

Sustained demand from small and medium sized businesses continued to help boost the figures.

On the consumer side, demand for notebooks remained strong, while a rebound in desktop sales contributed to a return to healthier trends. Aggressive pricing in the retail channel helped stimulate purchases during the back-to-school season.

Notebooks continued to display solid growth and remain a key area of intense competition between vendors.

Western Europe displayed marginally better results than anticipated, with a return to soft single-digit growth after five consecutive negative quarters, but market conditions remain difficult.

Germany continued to be affected by weak economic conditions, despite indications of moderate improvement, while the recent elections contributed to a "wait-and-see" stance among businesses. In France, the market remained constrained by slow business investments, while cautious attitudes also continued to prevent a faster rebound in the UK market.

Karine Paoli, IDC's EMEA personal computing expertise centre manager, said in a statement: "A gradual recovery in corporate investments will contribute to driving a return to healthier growth patterns for 2003. But market conditions will remain tough and vendors will need to continue to focus on more effective go-to-market strategies and be very close to their customers."

Read on for news of the vendors' invidual performances: http://www.silicon.com/a56041.