Asus overtakes Dell in EU PC rankings

Asus' success with laptops has pushed it past Dell in European PC shipments, according to Gartner.

The analyst firm said Asus' shipments grew by 20% to give the firm third spot with 10.6% of the Western European market, pipping Dell's 9.8%.

Despite HP's shipments slipping 7.5%, it continued to hold top spot with 23% of the market, while Acer's shipments fell by almost half, leaving it with a 15% share and second place. Apple rounded out the top five with 20% growth over the year, and 7.6% market share.

Overall, PC shipments in the Western European market continued to fall, down 11.4% from the same quarter last year.

"The inventory build-up that slowed growth in the last four quarters was mostly cleared during the third quarter of 2011," said Gartner analyst Meike Escherich. "However, the PC industry continued to perform below normal seasonality."

"The results in the third quarter of 2011 make unpleasant reading for the PC industry, as the third quarter is traditionally a strong consumer quarter, driven by back-to-school sales," she said.

The consumer market fell 18.8%, while business PCs were down 2.1%. "The much-hoped-for uptake of professional PCs in the wake of the migration to Windows 7 remained subdued by the pessimistic economic outlook," Gartner said.

UK market

The UK market echoed the Western European results, with overall PC shipments down 11% and the consumer market sliding 18%.

"Over the last year as HP's, and particularly Acer's, dominance has begun to shrink, the next tier of vendors, headed by Samsung and Apple, have been making the consumer market much more competitive with increased choices on retailers' shelves," Gartner said.