"The decline in the PC market in the UK has slowed down and the return to growth will be slow and a difficult process," said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner, based in the UK. "While the consumer market continued to defy the economic environment, the business market was still very weak."

Overall, the mobile PC market saw growth and was driven by a continued increase in consumer demand for mini-notebooks. "With consumer spending restricted, mini-notebooks are becoming more appealing as they provide better functionality at the lower price points," added Mr Atwal. "Most of the PC vendors now offer mini-notebooks as they realise the importance of this category. Mini-notebooks represented more than 40 per cent of the total consumer notebook market in the third quarter of 2009."



Most of the vendors are facing a difficult time. "Interestingly, two vendors at either end of the price spectrum are winning the battle. At one end, Acer continued to provide price-conscious products through multiple channels to attract a wider buying audience. At the other end, Apple leveraged the "halo" effect of the Apple brand created by the iPods and iPhones into the PC arena, dominating the mid to higher price brackets." Acer gained the No. 1 position while Samsung is closing the gap on Apple in fifth place, with 4.8 per cent market share. Samsung also saw the highest performance of the quarter, with 206.6 per cent growth year-on-year.

The professional market continued to be weak and will remain so into the first half of 2010. The impact of Windows 7 will be delayed until later on in 2010 as organisations complete the testing and integration of Windows 7. As the professional market regenerates itself, vendors such as Dell and HP will have more opportunities to grow market share.

Mr Atwal concluded: "The PC market in the UK was weaker than both Germany and France, and it is not expected to become stronger than those countries in the near future."

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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