IT distributors look further afield for new PC vendors
IT distributors across Europe are broadening their PC portfolios and performing better than the overall PC market, according to latest research.
“The broadening of European distributors’ PC portfolios has been good for their businesses,” says Marie-Christine Pygott, senior PC Analyst at IT market research company Context.
“At the beginning of 2008, an average of five PC vendors would make up approximately 80 percent in revenue terms of a distributor’s portfolio. By Q3 2010, the number had risen to seven, the broader spread resulting in less reliance on relatively few ‘A’ brands.”
PC average selling prices (ASPs) moved up since the beginning of 2010, and for Q3 2010 the PC ASP was £399, a 4.6 percent increase compared to the third quarter of last year. Total PC revenues reported by the Context Distribution Panel in Q3 2010 were £2.52bn, up 22.2 percent from £2.07bn compared to the same period one year ago.
Over the same period, unit PC sales via distribution increased 16.5 percent, a significantly better result than the leading European countries’ market growth of 2.7 percent in unit terms, as distributors increased their share of the PC business. 34.0 percent of all PCs shipped by vendors reached the market via distribution in Q3 2010, up from 29.9 percent in Q3 2009, reports Context.
Context reports that in Q1 2008, HP dominated the PC distribution landscape, with 43.9 percent share of total European PC distribution revenues. Acer followed with 15.1 percent, and there was a large gap to third place where Toshiba accounted for 7.6 percent of PC revenues. Fujitsu followed at 6.8 percent revenue share, Lenovo making up the top five vendors with 5.8 percent of revenues.
By the third quarter of 2010, Asus (7.4 percent), Apple (7.3 percent) and Samsung (4.4 percent) had gained significant revenue share of European distributors’ sales and moved into fifth, sixth and seventh position respectively to make up the top seven PC vendors, accounting for just over 80 percent of distributors’ PC business.
