PC year-on-year market growth only 5.4% for Q4 2000.

According to preliminary data from IDC, the PC market failed to record a healthy performance in the final quarter of the year, with year-on-year growth limited for the quarter to 5.4% and only 9.5% for the full year 2000 in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMF-A). Sluggish desktop and PC server growth contrasted strongly with impressive notebook growth of 37.9%. Disappointing retail sales, combined with the adoption of a wait-and-see approach from both small and large businesses regarding more powerful specifications of desktop machines and the impact of the strong dollar, significantly impacted results in Q4 2000.

The French market continued to display the weakest performance of EMEA's three largest markets, with a 4.6% decline year on year. Germany continued to record single-digit growth of 4.9%, with business confidence still low and only moderate signs of an improvement in corporate shipments. Small and medium-sized business and consumer performance was also mixed, with slower seasonal results than in 1999. Only the United Kingdom displayed stronger evidence of sustained business demand at 9.1%, with strong server shipments driven by ongoing infrastructure investments. Overall, Southern Europe continued to show double-digit growth, driven by a hardware catch-up in both the consumer and business markets. Emerging markets, in both Eastern Europe and Middle East, also continue to display sustained growth. The shift toward notebooks has continued in all segments of the market across the region, with an increasing number of notebooks replacing desktops in the corporate environment as many businesses opt to invest in mobile computers, driven by generic changes in working patterns and the potential for increased productivity from employees.

The PC market has undergone an important transition in 2000. The desktop market has clearly entered a period of flat growth as penetration rates approach saturation on both business and consumer markets, with notebooks beginning to take the place of desktops in the renewal cycle, P8 said Karine Paoli, IDC's Expertise Centre manager, EMFA Personal Computing group. E&If desktops continue to be replaced by smaller form factors and more manageable and easy-to-use appliances, more than one out of three PCs sold will be notebooks in 2002.

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