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E.U. Overtakes U.S. as Top PC Market

Posted by Zonk on from the where-aren't-we-slipping-these-days dept.

Digital Inspiration wrote to mention a Reuters article discussing Europe overtaking the U.S. as the largest PC Market. From the article: "Shipments in Europe, Middle East and Africa grew 17.1 percent to 72.7 million units, overtaking the United States which grew 7.5 percent to 67 million. In 2004, the United States still slightly exceeded Europe, both regions taking about 62 million units."

14 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Who exactly overtook the US? by mooingyak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Was it Europe, or Europe + Middle East + Africa?

    TFA and the summary both seem to confuse the issue.

    --
    William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
    1. Re:Who exactly overtook the US? by jsiren · · Score: 1

      Especially as EU != Europe.

      Not all of Europe is in the EU: depending on the definition of Europe (which is vague at best), there are about 20 countries that do not belong to the European Union. If Russia and Turkey, both reaching into both Europe and Asia, are counted as European countries, EU citizens probably are a minority in European countries.

      Then the article talks about something called EMEA, or "Europe, Middle East, and Africa". What's that got to do with EU? EMEA could include, without much exaggeration, everything west of Oman, east of the Azores, north of the Cape of Good Hope, and south of Svalbard. Yes, EU fits in there. No, EU isn't all of it. This is like talking about "North America" while meaning only Canada. Or "Asia" while meaning only India.
      --js--

      --
      Usage: km/h for speed (kilometers per hour); kph for very slow impulses (kilopond hours).
    2. Re:Who exactly overtook the US? by Sique · · Score: 1
      If Russia and Turkey, both reaching into both Europe and Asia, are counted as European countries, EU citizens probably are a minority in European countries.


      If we look at the geographic definition of Europe (the land limited by the Ural mountains, the Caucasus mountains, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic), then most of the Turks don't live in Europe (and those, who do, live mainly in Istanbul and Edirne, maybe 5 to 7 mio, many of the inhabitants of Istanbul live in the asian part of the town though). The european part of Russia has about 100 mio inhabitant. The next big non EU land in Europe is the Ukraine (~60 Mio inhabitants), then Belarus (don't know exactly, 20 mio?), all the others mostly in the Balkan region: Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegowina, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova maybe 40 Mio to 50 Mio together. All the other non members are either very small states: Monaco, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Vatican (which has a special state because of the contracts with Italy). Switzerland and Norway have another 7 mio resp. 3 mio inhabitants. So there are maybe 250 Mio non-EU europeans, still considerably less than in the EU (and with all Turks and Russians, even if they live in Asia, we are still at less than 350 mio).

      Because most of the countries in Africa are very poor (the cross domestic product of Africa is about the same size than Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg together, and South Africa accounts for about 40% of it), it is not a big market for new computers. Africans often come shopping for used computers and parts to Europe, which wouldn't count towards 'newly sold units'.

      Also many people of the Balkan and East European countries don't have much money to spend on IT investitions. So I guess, the EU accounts for at least 75-80% of the numbers for EMEA.
      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
  2. Look out by Fiachra06 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The redcoats are coming, the redcoats are coming!

  3. Why? by the+right+sock · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I realize there's a large leftist population here, but why must there be such constant disparaging of the US, especially when there's opportunity to suck off the EU? Even to the point that an article's meaning is subtley twisted in the headline to change its scope from an entire *region* (EMEA) to a (comparatively) much smaller grouping (the EU).

    They're no better than we are; some in fact are much worse when it comes to most things that boil the blood of the common slashdotter (try reading a bit about those member countries everyone here loves so much).

    1. Re:Why? by booch · · Score: 1

      Um, even if the EU were to buy more computers than the US, how could you interpret that as them being better than the US? Sounds like an exceedingly consumerist mentality. And even if they bought more computers, they have a larger population than the US, so they didn't buy more per capita. Methinks thou doth protesteth too much.

      --
      Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
    2. Re:Why? by amliebsch · · Score: 1
      Sounds like an exceedingly consumerist mentality.

      Perhaps s/he was responding to the "where-aren't-we-slipping-these-days dept." dig by the "editor".

      --
      If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
  4. This isint a surprise by Manitcor · · Score: 1

    After being ahead for so many years in PC per unit sales, espically in the home, the market in the US is almost completly saturated. Just about everyone that wants a computer has one including many lower income families. I know alot of non-geeks that even have multiple systems.

    --
    "Don't mess with him, he taunts the happy fun ball."
  5. Do the math. by ndansmith · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Population of EU: 459,500,000
    Population of US: 297,200,005

    As the process of modernization continues in the EU, surpassing the US in computer sales is a forgone conclusion.

    1. Re:Do the math. by broeman · · Score: 1

      EU is not a continent, it is a union of 25 nations. But it is true that it is not somewhat comparable, because those nations have different taxations (well, so does some US States). Many companies have, since the introduction of the internal market, seen EU as one market, instead of 12->15->25 different markets, which has created a much better and cheaper distribution of goods. On the other side, all nations in EU have different languages (and laws demanding documentation in the native language(s)), while the US market is mainly English.

      What I am trying to say is that there always is a lot of parameters, that would change the GPs simplified picture (but it is a good indication none the less).

      --

      (yes this can be compared with sex)
  6. Re:commodity junk by stinerman · · Score: 1

    The industries-hard and soft- have to constantly create mostly artifical reasons for people to "upgrade".

    No shit. That is the sole goal of marketing -- to make you think you need something that you don't really need. How many people here buy replacement goods after their current ones are no longer useable rather than buying upgrades because they have a percieved need for new goods? The entire economies of just about every country in the world would collapse if people only bought replacements instead of "upgrades".

    Think back to the purchases you've made and items you've recieved over the holidays. How many of these items were replacements for a non-functional item and how many were "gee wiz, this sure is cool"? Why do women have dozens of pairs of shoes in the closet? Artificial reasons created by some marketing department are to blame.

    The hardware guys and software guys need each other to survive. Without feature-rich software (read: bloated code) there would be no reason to upgrade from that 100MHz P1 you have in the basement. No higher performance hardware implies no more trivial transitions (Windows 95 -> 98) would occur, which would put companies that rely on the upgrade cycle out for the count.

  7. Hmmm a couple of things by Rac3r5 · · Score: 1

    Population of Europe>US
    these sales stats seem to be primarily of computer sales from big companies like Dell and HP.

    I dunno about the states, but here in Vancouver, Canada, most ppl I know get computers not from Dell and HP, but from local stores that sell generic computers. It seems that these stats are a bit off.

  8. Article makes no sense... by NEOtaku17 · · Score: 1

    How can you compare the U.S. to the E.U.? One is a country! That is like comparing North America to Germany. It doesn't mean anything...

    --
    Creative Demolition
    1. Re:Article makes no sense... by meggito · · Score: 1

      The EU market overtook the US market in sales. They are comparing markets not countries. The EU works off the Euro and the US off the Dollar. You might argue that it should be EU v NAFTA but that is a stretch given we dont share a currency with Mexico or Canada. Either way, the key is that they are comparing markets and not nations.