"The Western European PC market saw varied results across Europe with two of the largest markets, Germany and France showing growth, and smaller markets like Spain and Northern Europe exhibiting a decline," said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at market researcherGartner, based in the UK.

However, the market dynamics were similar across most countries, with weak professional markets and more positive consumer markets. "What will vary going forward will be the speed at which the professional market will grow," Mr Atwal said.

"Some markets will see growth much faster than others creating bigger opportunities for vendors. The time-span of the decline varied across countries in the third quarter of 2009, with countries such as France that have only had one quarter of shipment decline before returning to growth, whereas the UK, Spain and Ireland have seen a prolonged negative performance in the market."

Mini-notebooks were the driving force behind the sustained growth in the consumer market in the third quarter of 2009. The success of mini-notebooks continued to surprise many vendors that have only reluctantly joined the market with products, fearing further revenue declines per unit without sufficient profit margins. Vendors like Acer and Samsung have taken the greatest advantage of the mini-notebook boom, generating significant sales through the telco channels.



"Samsung is growing significantly in the PC market with 138 per cent growth year-on-year. Its brand presence created by its mobile phone, televisions and other consumer electronics markets is certainly being leveraged by Samsung’s PC department," said Ranjit Atwal.

In the third quarter of 2009, apart from Acer, the biggest winners, Apple and Samsung, were outside the top five. HP just managed to get ahead of the market average while Dell continued to suffer in the professional market. Toshiba managed to see growth in Western Europe but saw a weak performance in other regions.

Overall the vendors remain cautious as there is still uncertainty in the overall market conditions. Gartner expects the Western European PC market to exhibit growth in the fourth quarter and reach more-sustained growth in 2010.

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This article is part of a series:

- Western Europe PC Market declined slightly in 3Q/2009

- Acer now tops UK list of PC vendors

- France: Mini-notebooks drove return to growth

- Germany: PC shipments saw return to growth