Russian PC market declines only 3.9 percent in Q1 1999 compared with Q4 1998.

After a sharp increase in PC shipments in Q4 1998, the Russian PC market showed continued signs of recovery in Q1 1999. IDC recorded total shipments of 214,454 units for a value of $197.4 million. The market fell by 3.9 percent compared with Q4,1998. In previous years the PC market has usually declined more steeply in the first quarter. Since the 1998 economic crisis, however, the size of the overall Russian PC market has shrunk considerably. Compared with Q1 1998, shipments were off 120,674 units, a year on year decline of 36.0 percent. The Russian PC manufacturer R&K took first position in the overall market. The leading international brand was Compaq. Shipments of desktop PCs recovered the strongest. Sales of portable PCs and PC servers were notably weaker compared with shipments in Q1 1998. Though the share of the total market occupied by international vendors has fallen considerably since the 1998 economic crisis, in Q1 1999 the share of international brands increased slightly compared with Q4 1998.Due mostly to the very successful uptake of the Intel Celeron processor in Russia in Q1 1999, manufacturers of non-Intel processors again lost market share to Intel.