In the fourth quarter of 2013, HP remained the No. 1 PC vendor in Western Europe. HP, Lenovo and Asus strengthened their positions in the PC market at the expense of Samsung and Toshiba. "The battle for the fifth place was fierce," said Ms. Escherich. "Apple and Dell were very close in volume terms, but Apple won the No. 5 position in the fourth quarter of 2013 with double-digit growth in both the mobile and desktop PC markets. Apple has a strong presence in the consumer PC market, while Dell's presence in the enterprise is strong. "If demand for business PCs is stronger than consumer PCs, we may see the ranking change next quarter," added Ms. Escherich.

"Holiday sales in Western Europe were primarily dominated by tablets and mobile devices," said Ms. Escherich. "However, hybrid devices and lower cost notebooks could spur growth in 2014."
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