Apple breaks into UK Top 5 PC makers

While UK PC sales slid by 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, Apple's Mac sales grew 6.6 percent to take the company into the UK top five for the first time (replacing Fujitsu Siemens).

Apple's UK PC market share rose to 4.8 percent of all PC sales, according to figures from Gartner.

PC shipments in the UK totalled 3 million units in the first quarter of 2009, a decline of 5.1 per cent compared with the same period in 2008.

HP held onto the top spot (22.2 percent of market), despite a 6.8 percent decline.

The PC market showed negative growth with the professional market declining rapidly.

Dell (second with 20.3% share) saw its market share decline due to a rapid slowdown in the desktop professional market.

Third-place Acer's shipments increased 40.6 percent (to 16.8 percent share) due to its strong performance with mini notebooks. Toshiba came in fourth with 9.1% share, well ahead of Apple at 4.8%.

Apple, however, did not make it into the top five in Western Europe.

Again, HP was top (22.8 percent of market). Acer was a close second (22.1%). Dell was back in third at 10.6%, followed by Toshiba (6.8%), and Asus (4.8%).

Of the leading Western European countries, the UK was the weakest while France and Germany saw low single-digit growth.

"If it had not been for the mini notebooks, all of Western Europe would have seen a bigger decline in shipments," said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner, based in the UK.

In the first quarter of 2009, the professional market declined more than 20 percent year-on-year as businesses clearly refrained from buying and subsequently extended there PC lifecycles.

"This is a clear indication of the trend that we will see in other countries through 2010," added Atwal. The consumer market remained buoyant driven by strong mini notebook demand, and numerous vendors increased their mini notebook shipments during the quarter."

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