Surprise surprise, Apple was one of the only PC vendors to achieve growth in the western EU during the fourth-quarter of 2011. Research firm Gartner released their latest estimates for PC shipments in Western Europe during the holiday season, and only Apple and Asus made any meaningful progress.
Apple particularly increased its grip on the UK with a massive 17.2% rise in purchases for the final quarter and the Cupertino outfit now holds an estimated 9.1% market share in the country, putting them in at fourth place.
With European consumers losing interest in PC’s and laptops across the board, Apple could easily rise up the top five PC vendors list in the region.
It’s also worth noting that the statistics released by Gartner don’t include the iPad. If they did, Apple would be camping on the top-spot by a big margin.