Germany prime culprit in European PC sales slump

Conflicting reports are emerging about PC sales in Europe as German firms are being blamed for poor sales on the continent.

UK market research firm Context issued a report last week that said growth was slow in Europe. But Dataquest, part of the Gartner Group, remained bullish about the continent's fortunes.

The Context report stated that smaller PC companies face a desperate bid to compete with the giants for several reasons. The main reason is the demise of Escom, but other German vendors have failed to deliver the results that US firms desired. Last week, Vobis released a DM888 PC, without a monitor, into the European market.

Chip firms are reportedly unhappy with the performance of German firms.

Distributors like Peacock are under pressure from Intel as Europe and the German market are blamed for poor performance. August is expected to be no better.