Western European PC distribution sales up +9.5% in January

LONDON - Feb. 23, 2015 - PRLog -- Year-on-year volume sales of Notebooks, Desktops and PC workstations through Western European distribution increased by 9.5% in January 2015, following growth of 20.1% in Q4 2014, according to data published by CONTEXT, the European IT market tracking company.

Sales of consumer-targeted PCs were up by 12.4% in early 2015 following a 24.1% rise in the last quarter of 2014.  While growth has slowed with the end of the holiday period, Channel sales in the segment have continued to benefit from the Q4 2014 sell-in push of low-cost consumer Notebooks, partly driven by systems based on Microsoft's Windows with Bing.  Sales were also up year-on-year for consumer Desktops and new types of mobile device, although growth for the latter came from a small base.

Volume sales of business-targeted PCs increased by 6.5% in January following an increase of 15.1% in Q4 2014.  The slowdown in growth was predominantly due to a 14.3% fall in desktop sales in January as the effect of XP migration demand on sales continued to decline.  Business-targeted Notebooks maintained their strong Q4 2014 performance and sales were up by 23.8% year-on-year.  However, like in the consumer segment, growth in business Notebooks was predominantly driven by lower-priced units.

"The strong Q4 sell-in of budget notebooks and Bing laptops not only benefited consumer sales in the channel in January but also helped to push volume growth in the business segment”, said Marie-Christine, senior analyst at CONTEXT. “Nearly 16% of business-targeted Notebooks going through distribution in January were based on Bing."

Channel sell-through of Notebooks over the next few months is expected to continue to benefit from last year’s Q3 and Q4 sell-in push of budget systems.  Average PC prices across distribution are also expected to increase as a result of the recent Euro/US dollar exchange-rate pressures and, moving further into 2015, a smaller contribution from sales of low-cost products as the end of the current Bing initiative has an effect on Channel sales.

Country break-down

PC (Desktops, Notebooks, PC Workstations) year-on-year  growth in January 2015:

UK  19.1%

Germany-10.8%

Italy15.4%

Spain19.3%

France4.5%

Sweden6.1%

Switzerland-5.6%

Belgium17.4%

Austria 29.1%

About CONTEXT
Headquartered in London with over 200 staff in 15 countries, CONTEXT specialises in tracking technology sales and pricing across the globe. Supported by the largest Distribution Channel Sales Database in the world, CONTEXT tracks Channel sales in most countries across EMEA where we are the official data partners with all members of the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC). CONTEXT reports and services enable our customers to assess their business operations in the light of actual sell out figures, and make business critical decisions based on hard data. Follow us on Twitter: @contextworld.com or visit our website: www.contextworld.com

Media contacts
Funda Cizgenakad
Funda@contextworld.com
Tel: +44 7876 616 246