Prague, August 2, 2007 – The PC market in Central and Eastern Europe remained on a fast track in 2006, expanding nearly 23% in volume and almost a quarter in value year-on-year to almost 16 million units valued at over $14 billion. According to the latest study from IDC, the booming economy and growing stability in the region were key market drivers, leading to increased disposable income and rising consumer confidence.

“Add to this falling prices due to tougher competition among international players and you've got a combination of factors that really boosted PC sales on the regional level,” says Stefania Lorenz, Program Manager, IDC CEMA. “We expect the CEE PC market to slow a bit but still be strong in the coming years. Notebook shipments will continue taking the lead, expanding by more than 2.5 times by 2011.”

Russia was the largest national market in the region, representing more than 46% of PC shipments in 2006. The Polish market was the second largest, a third the size of the Russian.  Ukraine placed third, with less than 10% of the total. The Ukrainian market was the fastest growing, expanding almost twice as fast as the region as a whole. On the other hand, the Bulgarian and Romanian markets dragged on at a relatively low 3.5% and 5.9%, respectively, year-on-year in 2006. Russian PC shipments reached a record high of 7.35 million units valued at $6.62 billion. Market expansion, however, slowed to just over 18% in unit terms in 2006 from 21.5% in the previous year due to saturation. Although desktop PC accounted for almost three quarters of the market, the number of units shipped shrunk by 6.0% year-on-year. By contrast, notebooks were the engine of growth with a 55.0% rise in shipments as compared to 2005.

The CEE market as a whole was highly fragmented, with no single vendor accounting for more than 8% of total shipments. Eight out of the ten biggest vendors were international players, including the top three – HP, Acer, and Asus – who were responsible for almost 19% of total shipments but more than a quarter of the revenue.

Desktop PCs remained the dominant form factor on the regional market, comprising almost 70% of shipments after healthy growth of over 12% year-on-year in 2006. Notebook adoption in Central and Eastern Europe accelerated, expanding impressively by more than 61% in volume over the previous year. Growth in shipments of x86 servers exceeded 16%, and over 90% of servers shipped had 64bit processors.

“Although notebooks remained the engine of growth on the PC market in 2006 in Central and Eastern Europe,” said Stefania Lorenz, “desktops dominated the regional market as a whole and there are still big differences among individual countries. For instance in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, notebooks have been catching up quickly and running almost equal with desktops in terms of shipments, as vendors increased their focus on the consumer market. By contrast, in Russia, Ukraine, and Romania, notebooks accounted for less than a quarter of all shipments.”

IDC’s Central and Eastern Europe Personal Computing 2007-2011 Forecast and 2006 Vendor Shares (IDC #EJ02P) provides detailed analysis and forecasts regarding the dynamics of the personal computer market in Central and Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Rest of CEE) and helps understand the changes and challenges facing the PC industry. IDC's 2006 figures and analysis are based on information gathered from interviews with the leading IT companies (vendors, distributors, assemblers, system integrators, value-added resellers, and dealers) active in the region.

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