Beancounters at Context have added up some numbers and worked out that revenues from sales of business-targeted PCs through Western Europe’s most significant distributors were up in Q4 2017 despite a drop in volume.
The thought is that this was only possible because distributors had to jack up their prices a bit. Revenue growth was driven by a continuous year on year rise in distributors’ average sale prices (ASPs), which offset the effects of lower volume. The ASP of commercial PCs in the quarter was €646, 12 percent higher than in the previous year.
PC ASPs have been on the rise since the end of 2016 as a result of exchange-rate fluctuations, changes in component costs and a beneficial increase in demand for higher priced products, claimed Context.
In Q4 2017, as in earlier quarters of the year, there was a significant contribution from demand for higher priced products as commercial customers continued to focus on improved quality, performance and mobility.
Most volume growth in the segment came from the high end of the market. There was a 10 percent increase in sales of ultra-slim portables and a nine percent rise in those of notebook workstations.
Context senior analyst Marie-Christine Pygott said that PC pricing and revenues in the commercial segment are expected to continue to benefit from the shift in demand to higher-end products as users maintain their focus on high quality, high performance and, often, high portability.
The year on year revenue growth for business-targeted PCs in the UK was 13.2 percent, the region being beaten in Europe only by Poland with 13.9 percent.
As for other major European economies, Germany grew by 9.8 percent, France by 5.1 percent, and Italy dropped by 2.2 percent.
