EMEA PC shipments did better than expected in Q3, reaching 17.9 million units and posting just a 3.3% yr/yr decrease, says IDC. Notebook shipments increased by 0.7%, supported by interest in new thin and light solutions from Western European enterprises.
Also in this quarter EMEA continued to be affected by uncertainties, such as exchange rate fluctuations, currency weaknesses, and political instabilities including Brexit talks. Despite these challenges, commercial notebook shipments remained strong, growing 5.6% in EMEA compared with 2015Q3. Contrarily, consumer notebooks decreased 2.6% in the region.
The planned increase of panel prices for notebooks before the end of 2016 drove notebook orders up earlier for year-end business. This resulted in some cases in shortages. Overall, the large shipment volumes are expected to contribute to a buildup in stock.
The Windows 10 anniversary edition did not seem to have a significant impact on renewals. Chrome, despite being marginal, is performing well for the second quarter in a row. The back-to-school season together with the upcoming Black Friday in late November and Christmas holidays contributed to shipment uplift and stock intakes rose, but desktops in EMEA continued to contract by 10.6%.
"The PC market continued to be differentiated in EMEA, with only one common trend: a decline in desktops," said Andrea Minonne, research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. "Although desktops registered again negative results and demand was low across EMEA, notebooks performed differently across all subregions. Once again, the Western European commercial market performed positively in 2016Q3, thanks to increasing adoption of notebooks in response to enterprise mobility needs."
Notebooks performed well in both Western Europe and the Middle East and Africa, increasing respectively by 1.0% and 14.5%, but registered a 10.2% decline in Central and Eastern Europe. In Western Europe, the consumer market continued to be a challenging segment. Many factors related to price increases and market uncertainty are leading price-sensitive consumers to extend the lifespan of their devices.
UK and Ireland faced challenges, especially in the commercial segment. Overall, Sweden and Italy posted higher YoY PC growth, which was supported by the strong performance of commercial notebooks. The other Mediterranean countries (Greece, Portugal, and Spain) performed below market average and continued to be challenged by slow market rebound. In particular, political instabilities are affecting Spain, where a fully empowered government has not been formed for a few quarters. Contrarily, the Nordics continued to post growth and performed strongly in the commercial segment. Germany did not show dramatic changes compared with last year and remained overall flattish.
"While anticipation of hikes in panel prices drove vendors to stock up large PC volumes, a usual large back-to-school volumes contributed to strong seasonality in the commercial space," said Malini Paul, senior research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. "The Nordics and DACH regions posted solid growth in commercial PC (respectively 20.2% and 4.6%) as well as France (5.7% YoY growth). Southern Europe was relatively weaker, with Italy being the only exception, recording stronger results (3.1% YoY growth)."
The PC market in Central and Eastern Europe reported worse results than expected overall, posting a double-digit decline, contrary to the forecast single-digit decrease.
"The Central European market suffered the most: Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia all reported a double-digit declines compared with 2015Q3," said Nikolina Jurisic, product manager, IDC CEMA. "In 2015, during the crisis in Russia and the CIS, vendors focused their market strategies towards the Central European markets and pushed large volumes into the channels across the countries. However, what is becoming clear is that the inventory and stock situation in some of these countries is affecting sales-in, as demand remained low. In contrast, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine performed reasonably well. Russia, in line with the forecast, remained negative at -7.0% YoY".
“The winner of the region was Turkey, with an annual increase of 30.3% YoY," said Stefania Lorenz, associate VP CEMA. "The PC market is finally regaining momentum in the country after the very negative results recorded in the five quarters between 2015Q1 and 2016Q1. The PC market showed improvement thanks to the political stabilization which was in question immediately after the attempted coup.
HP Inc outperformed the market and reinforced its position in EMEA with a 26.0% market share. Innovation is HP's core strategy, which remained powerful and once again gained in the commercial notebook and consumer desktop segment, thanks to the raise of gaming for the latest.
Lenovo consolidated its second place with a 20.1% market share, almost flat compared with last year.