Mac Sales Slash PC Receipts to New European Lows

[Michael Essany]

According to the latest data published by research firm Gartner, Mac sales in Europe are driving PC sales into retreat like never before. The freshly published report indicates that PC sales across the continent tanked during Q4 of 2011.

Just how low did they go?

Apple's Mac sales were so strong that Gartner is largely crediting Apple with reducing PC sales in the U.K. by almost 20 percent year-over-year in the holiday quarter. PCs didn't look much better in France, where PC sales similarly tumbled close to 12 percent.

How did Mac sales look in comparison? In both the U.K. and France, double-digit market gains year-over-year were recorded. In Great Britain, Mac sales gained 17.2 percent over Q4 of 2010. Gartner says Apple was the only vendor among the biggest computer makers (top five) to actually see a year-over-year sales increase.

The PC market in Western Europe has suffered four consecutive quarters of shipment decline. "Despite aggressive pricing and special holiday deals for PCs, consumers' attention was caught by other devices, such as smartphones, media tablets and e-readers," said Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner. "Even though we saw a drop in prices, consumer PC shipments could not match the levels of previous years."

Dell was, without question, the biggest loser in the PC sales slump, shedding 32.2 percent of its business. HP also got walloped to the tune of 27 percent less business.

"Overall," says one analyst for Gartner, "we expect the PC market to remain under pressure in the first half of 2012, and although shortages of hard-disk drives had only a limited impact in the fourth quarter of 2011, we expect substantial increases in average selling prices in the first quarter of 2012."

Source: Gartner

[JorgeGZC]

Oh come on!! Now they are trying to sell us the idea that PCs sales are being overturned by Macs. Good advertising campaign apple I'll give then that!

[hogcia]

Overall pc sales are down due to the horrible economy, not because of over priced macs. And these figures include the iPad, which are most likely driving up most of the numbers.

[Phillip Swanson]

HAHA!! I totally forgot about that graphic!

[ibivibiv]

Yes hog and jorge, because it is physically impossible that people just might be choosing Apple compute products over brand X with Wintendos on it.

[hogcia]

Yes hog and jorge, because it is physically impossible that people just might be choosing Apple compute products over brand X with Wintendos on it.

I love & own 2 iPhone4s, 2 iPods and 1 iPad2, this is the only reason apple is doing so well, there macs are just pretty, not enough for me. I have work to do, and macs simply don't support many of the software I need. NEXT!

[onelifexv]

Hogcia: really? My MacBook pro is the best Windows laptop I have ever owned.

[Don Ju4n]

I love & own 2 iPhone4s, 2 iPods and 1 iPad2, this is the only reason apple is doing so well, there macs are just pretty, not enough for me. I have work to do, and macs simply don't support many of the software I need. NEXT!

If you don't mind me asking... WHAT in the world do you do that is not supported on a Mac? Mac OSX is a Unix based OS, So in pretty damn sure that there are WAY more things that are compatible with Unix than with pc. But maybe you're just trying to run legacy OS 9 apps on a brand new MBP....

[GmAz]

iPad =\= PC. Sorry, but its in a different category.