Acer outpaced Dell in fourth-quarter 2006 PC sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), according to new figures from research firm IDC. Laptops also outsold desktop PCs in Western Europe for the first time. However, corporate refresh cycles are expected to drive up desktop sales in the second half of 2007, the company predicted.

Acer was the second-largest PC vendor across EMEA in Q4 2006, pushing Dell into third place, IDC said. Dell sales were hit by slow commercial demand and competition from HP, which remained top overall supplier.

IDC senior research analyst Michael Larner said that Acer's growth was fuelled by competitive desktop offerings combined with continued strong laptop sales. Acer held its position as leading laptop vendor, but saw strong competition from HP, which expanded sales by 62 percent during the quarter.

The overall PC market in EMEA grew by 10.4 percent during the quarter, according to IDC's figures. While laptop sales continued to grow, desktop sales in Western Europe declined by about 5.7 percent.

"Demand [for desktops] declined in the UK, France and Germany, so that notebook PCs overtook desktops for the first time," said Eszter Morvay, research analyst for IDC in Europe. Laptop sales stood at 8.4 million during the quarter, against 8 million desktops.

The UK bucked the trend in business desktop sales, however, which expanded here by 10 percent. Commercial desktop refresh cycles tend to happen earlier in the UK than elsewhere in Europe, IDC said.

Corporate desktop refreshes are set to gather pace later in 2007, while Windows Vista is also expected to drive sales this year. However, IDC's Andy Brown indicated that Vista would boost the consumer market rather than business sales.

"In general, enterprises are not moving to new operating systems, at least no t until the first service pack, so we don’t expect to see a massive impact in the corporate space in 2007. Once issues of application compatibility are sorted, companies will start to consider it," Brown said.