Canalys reported that PC shipments in Western Europe fell 18 percent in the second quarter. For the second quarter in a row, this decline was driven by weakness in laptop and tablet sales, with laptops falling 18 percent year-on-year to 12.3 million shipments. Tablet sales, on the other hand, continue to show a downward trend, taking the biggest hit, down 24 percent to 5.9 million units. In contrast, desktop computers managed to reach 2.7 million shipments, up 22% year-on-year.
The report cites supply chain disruptions as responsible for the drop in sales. During the 2nd quarter of the year, activities in many factories and ports stopped as curfews were imposed in various parts of China. Although things improved at the end of May, the losses at the beginning of the quarter could not have been compensated, which has been achieved. In addition to these delays, inflation has also caused people to cut back on their spending, which is clearly causing further damage to PC sales.
Big drop from Apple
The report also includes explanations for brands. According to the report, Apple, which is among the largest desktop, laptop and workstation vendors (excluding tablets), took the biggest hit in Western Europe with shipments falling from 1.36 million in the 2nd quarter of 2021 to 788 thousand in the 2nd quarter of 2022. . While this is a big decrease of 42 percent, its market share has decreased from 9 percent to 6.4 percent. Lenovo, which performed the best in sales, still couldn’t avoid a 8.2 percent drop in shipments. Having achieved a sales success of 4.12 million units in the 2nd quarter of 2021, Lenovo achieved sales of only 3.79 million units in the 2nd quarter of 2022, according to the report.
So what will happen? While the quarantines are not currently hampering the supply chain, the energy bills in Western Europe are very high. This will have a huge impact on finances in places like the UK, which could cause PC sales to remain low for the rest of the year and possibly much of next year. The Trade Union Congress in the UK also reported last week that if no action is taken, energy bills will cost 2 months’ salaries next year, so people can no longer afford to buy new PCs.
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