PC shipments in EMEA reached 20.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015 - an 18.2% decrease year on year, according to IDC.
After a strong shipment push of devices under Microsoft's Bing promotion from summer 2014 to January 2015, the focus for hardware manufacturers and their channel partners has been to deplete stock, leading to an 18% contraction for 2015 with 76.3 million PCs shipped in EMEA.
In 2014 PC shipments were driven in commercial by the end of Windows XP support as well as the need to renew the first Windows 7 portables four years after their deployment, while in the consumer segment Bing successfully targeted the needs of price sensitive users.
The strengthening of the dollar also led partners to gamble on cheap products in the fourth quarter of 2014. But 2015 turned into a very costly year for all of them as inventory clearing not only took eleven months but also strong promotions and price reductions.
Year on year comparisons were therefore unfavourable during 2015 and the introduction of new technologies such as Windows 10 or new CPUs failed to reverse the trend. But it is not all bad news- as there are some signs of stabilisation and 2015 results will support a more positive comparison in 2016.
"The market contraction was to be expected," said Chrystelle Labesque, associate director, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. The combination of various economic and political factors led all three sub-regions to contract in 2015Q4. Western Europe declined by 13.1%, while in line with expectations, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) contracted 24.7%.
In Western Europe, the UK consumer market reported the best result, while in the commercial segment some public spending in particular in Austria and Italy supported shipment volumes.
A sharp decline in oil prices together with currency and political instabilities affected the CEMA region in particular, while the slowdown in the Chinese economy is worsening the business outlook in export-oriented Western European countries.
Looking at the full 2015 performance, Western Europe was down by 13.8% over 2014, and market consolidation becomes more obvious as the top 3 players (HP, Lenovo, Dell) accounted for 54% of the market in 2015 vs 50% in 2014.
"2015 was clearly a very difficult year for the PC market. Demand remained weak across all four quarters with double-digit contractions in CEE and MEA," said Stefania Lorenz, associate VP, IDC CEMA. "The CEE region contracted by 26.4% year-on-year in 2015. The region was negatively affected by the devaluations of local currencies and high PC inventory levels left from 2014.
"The worst impact on purchasing power was felt in the Eastern part of the region: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan as well as the Rest of CEE subregion. Other factors that prevented the market from rebounding in the commercial space included government budget freezes."
"In Q4 2015 the PC market in the CEE region was in line with the forecast at -24.7% year-on-year," said Nikolina Jurisic, product manager, IDC CEMA. "Viewing the country mix, the "star" was Hungary, with a positive result of 11.5% growth year-on-year thanks to last minute deals in the public sector. The other countries in the CEE region reported PC market declines.
In many cases the unfavorable comparison with Q414 (and the Bing push) resulted in a sharper decline for Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Croatia.