UK pc shipments down 11% on 2010

The market analyst reports that the consumer market had the biggest impact on shipments, with the segment declining 18% year on year. Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, said: "The market seems to be moving at three speeds. The top two vendors, HP and Dell, continued to struggle to find new opportunities and experienced single digit declines; Acer, in the process of inventory readjustment, declined more than 50%; Apple and Samsung gained strength in the market. More importantly, quarter on quarter, all vendors saw growth apart from Acer, suggesting the fluctuations in the market may be bottoming out." According to Gartner, the professional pc market remains 'muted', but the need of organisations to move to Windows 7 provides some underlying momentum. In Q3 2011, HP retained its number one position acquired last quarter, with Dell also holding on to second place. Samsung chased Apple for the fourth position and collectively had a higher market share than Acer. The analyst reports, "With brand becoming more important as buying criterion in the pc market, both of these vendors have a strong pc and cross device proposition. This will enable them to tackle the top three even more in 2012."