According to International Data Corporation (IDC), PC shipments in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) remained constrained in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13) as consumer demand continued to be weak while commercial demand improved. HP and Lenovo claimed first and second position respectively in computer shipment to the regions.

Overall PC shipments declined by 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Total shipments have now declined for six consecutive quarters in the region but the pace of contraction slowed during the second half of 2013.

The fourth quarter results bring total EMEA PC sales for the full year 2013 to 88.3 million units, and to a decline of 15.7% compared with 2012.

Portable PC shipments contracted the most in 2013, declining by 19.0%, while desktops declined by 9.6%.

“As expected, the PC market contracted across EMEA in 4Q13. The holiday season offers were unable to inspire an upturn in consumer spending, which continued to concentrate on tablets. As a result, notebook sales continued to display negative trends in the last quarter of the year, with portable PC shipments in EMEA reaching a decline of 9% in 4Q13,” said Chrystelle Labesque, research manager, IDC EMEA Personal Computing.

“On the other hand, enterprises have been maximizing their budgets before year end, resulting in stabilization on the desktop PC market. Desktop PC shipments in EMEA posted a slight decline of 1.7% while in Western Europe there was a small rebound with growth of 2%.”

In Western Europe, commercial shipments increased 1.9%, while consumer sell in declined 8.3%, leading to a regional overall decline of 3.5%.

The end of Windows XP support and some aging of the PC installed base fueled enterprise renewals. For the third consecutive quarter in Western Europe, commercial PC shipments were larger than consumer shipments, following a disappointing Christmas season.

However, a healthier inventory situation at the end of 3Q did stimulate replenishments in retail in the run up to Christmas and until end of December.

“For 4Q13, the overall PC market in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) recorded a year on year decline of 10%, which is in line with expectations,” said Stefania Lorenz, associate vice president, IDC CEMA Systems.

“As predicted, the market remained constrained during the quarter, with 2013 proving to be one of the worst on record for PC sales in CEE and MEA in both the consumer and commercial arenas. Altogether, shipments plummeted by more than 17% year on year. The reasons are many: economic slowdown, political unrest, the build-up of inventory throughout the year, and the consumer switch from PCs to tablets. The good news is that 2014 should see some turnaround. Renewals in the commercial space along with an expected increase in consumer confidence should give demand a boost over the next twelve months.”

“In 4Q13 the CEE region reported an annual decline of just over 7%, with the portable PC market contracting by nearly 9% and the desktop by just over 4%. Thanks to some major deals in large markets such as Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic, the commercial space reported a less drastic decline,” said Nikolina Jurisic, product manager, IDC CEMA Systems.

“The MEA region also struggled. As forecast, PC shipments tumbled by over 13% year on year. Africa pulled down the averages, as country markets from North to South faced issues related to political unrest and economic uncertainty. The largest market, South Africa, has been struggling with an unfavourable exchange rate as well as built-up inventory. By contrast, the Middle East region — specifically Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel — all performed better than expected in the commercial space, though weak consumer demand kept the numbers in the red year on year.”

The PC market in 2013 was marked by ongoing evolution of the PC form factors with an acceleration towards mobility, social networking and cloud business.

“Better results in the commercial desktop PC shipments and continued decline in the consumer space, particularly in portable PCs, confirm the trend we have been observing for several quarters that while PCs remain very relevant in the business area, consumers increasingly favour new mobile technologies, opting for tablets and smartphones as their preferred computing devices and extending the life cycle of their PCs,” said Maciej Gornicki, senior research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing.

The Vendor Highlights showed that HP maintained its leadership in EMEA in line with slow market conditions. The vendor leveraged from stronger commercial demand and posted a good performance in Western Europe, gaining market share in that region. Key drivers to HP’s success were innovation with the rollout of an extended product portfolio and a strong focus on strategy execution.

Lenovo consolidated its 2nd position in the overall EMEA PC ranking, recording another strong quarter of growth in EMEA.

The vendor gained shares across all subregions. Consistent strategy and execution combined with new product introductions were key to Lenovo’s success and expansion across EMEA.

Acer ranked in 3rd place, outperforming the market in the portable PC area and gaining market shares in Western Europe. The introduction of Acer Chromebook was successful. Overall the performance was supported by seasonal retail replenishment and solid progress in commercial strategy execution.

Dell achieved another good quarter, gaining slightly in market share and ranked 4th in the EMEA PC market. Product innovation and partnerships with cloud and other software companies are some of the elements of the new end-user computing strategy that had great resonance for the company during the quarter.

Asus kept its fifth place thanks to growth in notebook shipments and gained market share in the region. The vendor launched a lot of new products in the PC and tablets area that were positively received by the market.

Outside the top 5 vendors, Toshiba gained sixth place with some product line refreshes but facing challenging consumer demand. Apple ranked seventh, supported by new product launches and benefiting from favorable YoY comparison. Sony declined by 22.8% in EMEA impacted by declining consumer PC spending. Fujitsu ranked 9th with good results in the desktop space. Samsung closed the top 10 ranking in EMEA, with strong focus on Chromebook.