PC shipments in Western Europe collapsed 20% in Q1 2013

Neowin reports market research data from Gartner shows that PC sales in Western Europa collapsed by 20.5 percent in Q1 2013, the largest drop since Gartner began collecting data for the region. Interestingly, desktop PC sales saw the smallest drop with a plunge of 13.8 percent, while laptop shipments fell by a whopping 24.6 percent. Gartner analyst Meike Escherich claims there are several reasons for the big decline in shipments, including the poor reception of Windows 8 and the shift in usage patterns to tablets and smartphones.

The huge drop comes from a culmination of other large drops in certain areas: mobile (laptop) shipments fell 24.6%, desktop shipments fell 13.8%, professional PC shipments fell 17.2%, and consumer PC shipments fell 17.2%. Many countries in Western Europe also recorded considerable PC shipment declines, including the UK (down 15.8%), Germany (down 20.0%) and France (down 25.3%).

As you would expect, a number of vendors suffered because of declining shipments, with Acer and HP taking the largest hit – Western European Acer and HP PC shipments were both down by more than 30%. The only two OEMs who managed to increase their shipments for the period were Apple, with a meager 0.8% increase, and Lenovo, who managed a considerable 7.2% increase despite the hugely declining market.