Consumer-PC's down, business up?
Figures just released by Gartner Dataquest (www.gartner.com) for the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region show that Western Europe, and the UK especially, suffered its first PC shipment decline in the second quarter of this year.
The net result of this, the market research firm says, is that market growth was flat during the quarter.
According to Brian Gamage, the firm's analyst, the brunt of the PC shipment decline was in the consumer sector, meaning that the outlook for the business side of the channel remains optimistic.
The news comes as Gateway (www.gateway.com) has just announced it is pulling the plug on its Irish operations, which sell direct to most of Western Europe. The withdrawal of the US direct-sell vendor will cost around 850 jobs.
Gamage predicts that the business side of the PC channel remains buoyant, despite the slump on the consumer side of things,
"Large account customers have continued to return to the market and this segment is showing steady growth, but the overall picture is distorted by a general weakness of computer hardware in retail," he explained. "The worsening economic outlook is clearly hitting consumer confidence," he added.
According to Gartner Dataquest, PC shipments in the professional segment of Western Europe grew 5.7 per cent in the second quarter, with double-digit growth in large accounts offset by more modest growth in the small to medium-sized enterprise segment.
The home market, meanwhile, decreased by 15.4 per cent, leading the professional segment to account for 77 per cent of the PC market in the region during the second quarter.
According to the research, the two largest country markets, Germany and the UK, recorded declines of 11.9 and 7.3 per cent, respectively.
Shipments in France, the third-largest market, grew by 7.8 per cent, mainly because of a strong professional segment and high-volume employee purchase schemes.
Tiny pulls out of Internet services - sells to Tiscali
The slump in retail PC's (see above) explains why Tiny Computers, the UK's largest PC manufacturer, has pulled out of its Internet operations, selling the whole operation to Italy's Tiscali for eight million pounds.
The Internet service provider (ISP) division, with 700,000 subscribers across the UK, will be rebranded as Tiscali later this year, although Tiny will still get to offer the Internet service as a value-added option on all its PC sold in the UK.
Tiny says it will now focus all energies on its PC sales business through retail, direct and e-commerce channels, whilst increasing revenues by moving into different markets with new products.
Andrew Walwyn, Tiny's managing director, said that Tiny Online has been successful, both in its level of subscribers, profits and awards, but the company has decided to develop its core business further.
According to Walwyn, last year saw Tiny sold more than 400,000 PCs in the UK. The big question, of course, is whether sales in 2001 will reach this level - and whether Tiny can make a profit in its sales.
Computer 2000 signs up for NetScreen
The slow march of IT security products into the dealer channel continued this month as Computer 2000, the UK division of Tech Data, signed a deal that will give its resellers access to NetScreen` s products.
Computer 2000 says it will deliver the NetScreen VPN and security product line though its specialist and established security team, which operates within the distributor's networking division.
Colin Gray, NetScreen's EMEA managing director, said that the distribution deal highlights a new phase in the IT security firm's growth throughout Europe.
"We're seeking new partners capable of meeting the growing demand for our products and delivering high value security services. In partnership with Computer 2000, we believe we can find the right partners and continue to develop and expand our market," he said.
Taxan slashes up to 21 per cent off flat panel monitors
Just as PC hardware prices have fallen through the floor this last 12 months, so monitors are now falling. Taxan has just slashed up to 21 per cent off the price of its Crystalvision range of flat panel displays, which have previously been seen as a premium product.
The price cuts, which sees a 15 inch LCD monitor fall to under 400 pounds, mean that Taxan's screen process are up to 50 per cent less than a year ago.
Hugh Chappell, the monitor firm's deputy managing director, said that the changes reflect a phasing out of conventional CRT monitors in companies and a general shift over to flat panels.
"These price cuts are a direct response to market trends," he said, adding that, as demand increases, Taxan can pass on its savings to customers.
"The significant drop in price is yet another nail in the CRT coffin, so now is the right time for corporate users to upgrade with flat panels and take advantage of the market shift," he explained.
Compaq adopts pay-per-use pricing
Compaq has followed Hewlett-Packard in introducing a pay-per-use pricing model for its AlphaServer and Non-Stop Himalaya servers.
Calling the program `Computing On Demand', Compaq says it plans to extend the scheme to its ProLiant range of servers in the next few months.
Sales are still routed through resellers, and the program includes flexible finance, as well as a `rental' (pay-per-unit-per-month) charging system based around the applications which run on the systems, rather than basing price on the power and configuration of the servers themselves.
Once the deal has been signed by the reseller, Compaq's staff install and manage the systems, with maintenance usually being carried out on a remote basis.
The ability to manage the system remotely means that companies can buy extra computer resources in advance, but not use them (i.e. switch the systems on) until they are needed.
Major companies can also elect to use extra resources off-site, at a Compaq data centre, for example, and then be charged extra by Compaq when and if the resources are used.
Unipalm taps consultancy firm for reseller help
Unipalm, the e-business specialist, has teamed up with Koala Consulting, a dealer channel focused recruitment consultancy.
The deal will provide Unipalm's reseller partners with the ability to provide customers with expert contractors for any length of time, from a few days to a number of months, years or even permanently.
On top of this aspect, Unipalm has extended the service to provide resellers with staff for their internal use, on both a technical and sales basis.
According to Russell Zientek, Unipalm's head of professional services, the staffing resources extend the distributor's existing service offerings to the channel.
"This will enable our partners to provide a full `value add' service to their customers at the same time as enhancing their own internal resources," he said.
The idea is an interesting one, but good dealers should already have forged links with relevant employment agencies, for client staffing issues - if they haven't, they probably aren't doing their value-added reseller job properly.
Gartner/Dataquest, www.gartner.com;
Tiny Computers, 0044-293-827302 (GB), www.tiny.com;
Computer 2000, 0044-870-0750000 (GB), www.computer2000.co.uk;
Taxan, 0044-1344-484646 (GB), www.taxan.co.uk;
Compaq UK, 0044-20-83323000 (GB), www.compaq.co.uk;
Unipalm, 0044-1638-56960 (GB), www.unipalm.co.uk