In a scenario that is likely to further impact display sales going forward, 2022 PC and tablet shipments in Europe took a 21% drop YoY.
A staggering 27% drop in consumer PC shipments to Western Europe between Q3 and Q4 last year raises eyebrows, especially considering the heavy discounting during that period. This decline during the holiday quarter is blamed on the usual suspects, the impact of the current economic situation on demand and inflated inventories. While it’s true that the market became saturated during the pandemic, with eight consecutive quarters of higher consumer PC shipment volumes compared to the holiday quarter of 2019, one can’t help but wonder what is really happening with inventory management because there’s been sufficient time for channels to adjust. The macroeconomic issues are pretty clear and unavoidable, but bloated inventories? Seems like a lot of irrational exuberance has failed to be addresses in supply chain therapy.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, commercial demand for PCs has been dampened by businesses facing challenges due to interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank (ECB), which are unlikely to go away in 2023. As companies shift their priorities away from IT investments, the momentum of PC shipments, which had begun to recover after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, now seems to have stalled.
2022 Desktop, Notebook, and Workstation Shipments in Western Europe
As for how the leading brands fared, Lenovo retained its position as the market leader with 13.9 million shipments, accounting for 26.9% market share. However, this represented a 17.6% annual decline from 2021, when the company shipped 16.8 million units and held a 25.9% market share.
HP followed closely, with 12.2 million shipments in 2022, capturing a 23.7% market share. This was a significant decrease from 2021, when HP shipped 16.6 million units and held a 25.5% market share, representing a 26.1% annual decline. Dell came in third, with 7.3 million shipments and a 14.2% market share in 2022, down from 9.4 million shipments and a 14.5% market share in 2021. This equated to a 21.9% reduction in annual growth.
Apple experienced a relatively smaller decline, shipping 6.3 million units in 2022 with a 12.2% market share, compared to 6.7 million shipments and a 10.3% market share in 2021. This represented a 5.3% annual decline in growth. Acer saw the most significant drop, with 3.4 million shipments and a 6.6% market share in 2022, down from 5.5 million shipments and an 8.5% market share in 2021, resulting in a substantial 38.0% decrease in annual growth.
2022 Tablet Shipments in Western Europe
Tablet shipments also experienced fluctuations in market share and annual growth among top vendors, some wilder than others. Apple continued to dominate the market, shipping 11.1 million units and capturing a 44.1% market share. However, this represented a 16.8% decline from 2021 when Apple shipped 13.4 million units and held a 43.2% market share.
Samsung, on the other hand, saw an increase in shipments and market share. In 2022, Samsung shipped 5.1 million units, accounting for a 20.4% market share, which was an improvement from 2021 when it shipped 4.9 million units and held a 15.8% market share. This marked a 5.5% annual growth for Samsung.
Lenovo experienced a significant decline in tablet shipments, with 3.0 million units and a 12.1% market share in 2022, compared to 4.8 million units and a 15.4% market share in 2021. This represented a sharp 36.2% decrease in annual growth. Amazon, however, enjoyed an increase in shipments and market share, shipping 2.3 million units in 2022, which translated to a 9.0% market share, up from 2.1 million units and a 6.8% market share in 2021. Amazon’s annual growth rate stood at 8.0%.
Huawei witnessed the most significant decline among the top vendors, shipping only 0.9 million units in 2022, which accounted for a 3.6% market share. This was a drastic drop from 2021 when Huawei shipped 2.2 million units and held a 7.1% market share, resulting in a staggering 59.3% decrease in annual growth.
