Apple chortles even though the PC market melts down in U.K., France

Apple chortles even though the PC market melts down in U.K., France Traditional PCs nexus 4 bumper have reached crisis in the U.K. and France--and Apple andtablets are building the slack.

In your fourth quarter of 2011, shipments for the U.K. PC market fell to 2.9 million units, a decline of 19.6 percent weighed against alike period really (see table below). PCs run the Windows operating-system.

That marked your fifth consecutive quarterly shipment decline, as nicely worst decline in five quarters, Gartner said. For the complete year, the U.K. market declined 15.9 percent, shrinking by nearly 2 million units from 2010.

France isn't faring far better. PC shipments there totaled 2.8 million units inside fourth quarter, falling 11.8 percent compared to a year earlier. For the year, PC shipments totaled 10.4 million units, a 12 % decline from 2010.

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Pretty dismal, right? Well, not for any one. "Only Apple achieved growth [while] four of this five [PC] vendors performed poorly," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, talking about the U.K. market, where Apple posted an enlargement in best nexus 4 case excess of 17 percent as compared to the same period this particular past year.

Atwal added that the U.K. PC market was suffering with, among other things, the growing use of smartphones, media tablets and e-readers. That's significant given that it means many more U.K. rrndividuals are opting purchasing smaller handheld devices instead of just PCs.

And this echoes a study by Canalys having said that Apple now is no. 1 PC vendor in the realm owing to consistently strong sales of theiPad--which Canalys categorizes as providing PC.

HP and Dell were down by 27 percent and 32.2 percent, respectively with the U.K. Acer declined from their whopping 62.4 percent.

And in France, Apple was up, too. In the summertime traditional PC player to work out development in France was Asus, Gartner said.

As throughout the U.K., tablets are taking market share. "Consumers spent their funds on other devices, most notably media tablets and smartphones," said Isabelle Durand, principal analyst at Gartner.

Is this injury is a symbol of circumstances to appear the U.S. together with regions? "PC vendors face a tough, uphill battle to regain a persons vision of clients. The roll-out of ultrabooks in late 2011 is desperately needed," said Mr. Atwal. Ultrabooks are thin, lightweight Windows laptops that contest with theMacBook Air.

Maybe just one bright location for PC vendors was Germany. Lenovo did well there for its buying Medion. And Dell was the top-five vendor to improve its shipments, because of lower attachment to the credit card holder business, based on Gartner.