Apple vaults into top 5 PC maker spot in UK, Western Europe

Earlier this week, Gartner issued a press release about the Western European PC market. For most PC manufacturers, things aren't looking good. For the first quarter of 2011, PC sales in the region were down 18 percent year over year. However, as usual, Apple has bucked the trend. For the same period, Apple's Western European PC sales were up 10-15 percent in the same markets. That growth helped the Mac maker spring into the top five PC vendor list in both the UK and Western Europe.

"Apple made its debut among the top five vendors in Western Europe, displacing Toshiba in the first quarter of 2011. Apple was the only one among the top five vendors to increase shipments, with volumes for mobile PCs growing 32 percent in the first quarter of 2011," Gartner said.

The top five PC makers for Western Europe are now HP, Acer, Dell, Asus and Apple; in the UK, the top five are HP, Acer, Dell, Toshiba and Apple.