PC shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) totalled 19.5 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a 10% decline from the first quarter of 2015, according to Gartner.
Principal Analyst at Gartner, Isabelle Durand, says “while the decline in the EMEA PC market is similar to the 9.6% decline seen worldwide, there are some differences in the region.”
According to Gartner, “in EMEA we saw many distinct factors cause clear splits between the consumer and professional PC markets, but also regionally between Western Europe and the rest of EMEA. Some PC vendors struggled to manage inventory and profitability in these diverse and rapidly shifting conditions.”
Although mainstream professional PCs suffered low demand in the first quarter of 2016, Gartner notes that there was continued growth in demand for thin and light notebooks with detachable keyboards — in both the business and consumer segments.
Durand says that “professional shipments of desktops and notebooks declined as business buyers continued to evaluate Windows 10 and delayed major deployments until the end of 2016.”
Gartner points out that “all of these factors combined put heavy pressure on the demand for new PCs across EMEA,” said Ms. Durand. “In addition, the caution of PC buyers in EMEA will likely continue into the second quarter of 2016. PC vendors must react quickly to varied trends among the professional and consumer segments, and fast-changing market conditions. The structure of the devices market and user purchasing behavior has fundamentally changed the dynamics of the PC market.”
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