Context: PC market flip-flops in Q4

October sales momentum stalls in November

Sales of notebook and tablet PC devices stalled in the final months of last year, despite reports of double-digit growth in October.

According to research by analyst Context, European PC sales via distribution were up 15 per cent on last year during October 2010.

The firm said the popularity of notebooks and tablets and the rollout of a retail-focused sales push by HP on all its portable devices contributed to October's growth.

The figures show that sales of tablet devices were up 2,375 per cent on last year, with 130,050 units sold during October. Half of these were reportedly Apple iPads.

During the same month, nearly 1.4 million notebooks and 500,000 netbooks were sold across Europe.

However, the October momentum stalled the following month, with PC sales halving between the final week of October (880,000 units) and the first of November (446,000 units).

According to Context, PC sales through distribution remained below 2009 levels for the rest of the month, despite climbing to a peak of more than 700,000 units during the last week of November.