Apple joins UK's top table of PC sellers

Brits loving their Macs - but ditching their netbooks?

Mac maker Apple became one of the top five UK PC sellers in Q1 2011, according to GartnerPhoto Apple

Apple has broken into the top five PC vendors in the UK for the first time, knocking Samsung out of the group.

The Mac maker was the only one of the five to grow PC shipments in the first quarter of the year, according to analyst house Gartner - recording growth of 15.9 per cent, year on year.

The top four UK PC vendors in Q1 2011 were HP, Acer, Dell and Toshiba, all four of which recorded big drops in units shipped - of between 10 per cent and close to a third.

Gartner said the UK market exhibited the worst decline of the three major countries in Western Europe at the start of this year, citing economic pressures on consumer spending and a shift away from netbooks as factors affecting PC sales.

The analyst suggested the availability of alternative devices, including media tablets such as the Apple iPad, also eroded PC sales in Western Europe. The region recorded a year-on-year decline of 17.5 per cent, according to the analyst.

The Apple brand is flying particularly high at the moment. Earlier this month Apple displaced Google as the world's most valuable brand, atop the BrandZ Top 100 index. And last month Gartner reported Apple's Mac OS and the Linux operating system grew faster than any other OS in 2010.