Volume sales of mini PCs (housed in a space-saving small case design) through Western Europe's largest distributors continued to grow in Q1 2017 even though demand in the overall desktop segment remained weak, according to data published by Context, the European IT market research company.
While overall desktop PC sales fell by -10% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2017, sales of mini PCs were up by +26% over the same period. As a result, their share of the desktop market increased by 7 percentage points from 18% in Q1 2016 to 25% in the same period this year.
"Mini PCs have enjoyed rising popularity over the past year because of their space-saving design and improvements to their performance, and many PC vendors have increased their focus on the segment to leverage rising demand," said Marie-Christine Pygott, senior analyst at Context.
In Q1 2017, the top three vendors in distribution - HP, Intel and Lenovo - posted year-on-year volume growth of +47%, +8% and +78% respectively.