THE UNITED KINGDOM The smiling face of the Labour candidate for prime
minister, Tony Blair, could be emblematic for IT market trends in the
U.K.. While few believe that Blair will achieve his claim to "wire every
household in the country for the Internet," British households and
businesses are spending ever more on IT as the economy improves.
"The years of recession are behind us," says Barrie Baxter, European
marketing director for Fujitsu-ICL in London."The demand for consumer
goods is increasing rapidly, and businesses are gearing up to meet the
Business, which had not been investing, is now upgrading to Pentium
processors, according to Philip Williams, an analyst with IDC in
London."The fall in Pentium prices we've seen here in the past year has
made the investment even more attractive," Williams says, adding that
the trend should continue through 1997.
While the biggest PC vendors are profiting from the trend, the U.K. has
an enormous market for direct sales-direct operations, in fact, account
for more than one third of the market for boxes."The U.K. differs from
the rest of Europe" in this respect, Baxter explains."Consumers here are
accustomed to buying by mail. So long as the PC checks out and the buyer
is assured that the company won't disappear overnight, they aren't
afraid to buy on the credit card," Thus, magazines like Computer Shopper
are extremely important in the U.K.--and it explains why this country is
Dell's biggest European market. The result is that this part of the PC
market will continue to grow more rapidly than that of the traditional
In the second quarter of 1996, Compaq had 14.3 percent of the U.K.
market, with Dell close behind at 8.4 percent and IBM following at 6.9
Executive Summary: The U.K. is still the fastest-growing market in
Europe, while on the continent, the deadlock over the single market has
stalled economies and ...