IDC reports more declines for the EMEA PC market, as Q2 2015 shipments drop by -21.6% Y-o-Y to reach 17.2 million units due to a combination of unfavourable Y-o-Y comparisons, high inventories and higher price points.
H1 2014 was a particularly strong period for the industry, being the time when Windows XP-related renewals boosted shipments across the region.
"Q2 2015 was, as expected, a transition period between the very popular Microsoft Bing promotion, which supported sales over the past 4 quarters, and the forthcoming launch of Windows 10 at the end of July," the analyst remarks.
All 3 EMEA regions see "strong" contractions-- W. Europe posts a -19.3% Y-o-Y decline, CEE shipments drop by -24.3% and MEA is hit worst at -25.7%. The regions are equally hit by currency fluctuations and inventories, as well as double-digit declines in both consumer (-24%) and commercial (-18.9%) segments.
W. European PC shipments total 10.7m units, with the consumer segment seeing the strongest -20.8% Y-o-Y contraction. High inventories hit the sales of Windows Bing notebooks, while an unfavourable euro/dollar exchange rate lead to price increases and further slowdown. Commercial shipments are down by -17.9% Y-o-Y.
Interestingly S. European countries perform better than the W. European average, as Spain and Portugal post respective 4% and 2% growth while Italy declines by -6%, a much softer decline. This is unlike the likes of Germany and the Netherlands, where PC shipments are down by -34% and -37% respectively.
"The industry is now focusing on the successful launch of Windows 10 in the coming weeks," IDC says. "However, the impact on hardware might be limited in the short term as the free upgrade approach for consumers does not require new hardware in many instances. For enterprises, most companies always conduct tests of the new operating system for several months before upgrading their platform and there, too, it might not require a hardware refresh. Overall, however, a large number of businesses are considering upgrading to Windows 10, supporting the next refresh cycle in the mid-term, particularly on mobile devices."
In the vendor rankings HP comes on top through better performance than the competition-- even if it still sees -17.2% Y-o-Y shipment declines, in part due to comparisons with strong Q2 2014 results. Lenovo follows with shipments dropping by -14.7% to 3.3m units due to high inventory and weak demand.
Dell reports a strong quarter as it comes 3rd through better than average commercial shipments, while Asus and Acer makes it to 4th and 5th place respectively.
Outside the top 5 IDC says Apple has a "very strong" quarter complete with double-digit growth as the company benefits from shipments of its new product portfolio. Toshiba is another growing company, while Fujitsu posts strong declines due to adverse Y-o-Y comparisons.
