E-Business
Rebound in Notebooks in W/Europe Boosts 2Q16 PC Shipments in EMEA
PC shipments in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) performed above expectations, reaching 16.1 million units in the second quarter of 2016 — a 4.7% YoY decrease, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Looking at regions, Western Europe stabilized at -0.8%, while Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa remained constrained respectively at -8.5% and -13.3%.
Notebooks in EMEA posted good performance, stabilizing at -1.7%. For the first time, the YoY comparison was not impacted by Bing shipments. In fact, notebook shipments in Western Europe went up by 4.1%, driven by the commercial segment that registered a 10.5% increase. This brought the growth of EMEA commercial notebooks into positive territory with a 3.7% YoY growth. In contrast, the consumer notebook market continued to decline. Desktop PCs posted a 10.0% decline overall, in line with forecasts, in EMEA.
The EMEA region remained hit by volatile exchange rates, oil price fluctuations, and macroeconomic and political developments, all of which created a difficult market, especially in Western Europe and the Middle East. Windows 10 is accelerating but is failing to drive large renewals, while new designs based on Skylake were generating strong interest and supported new form factor penetration.
“In EMEA, notebook continued to outperform desktop with improvements mainly in the commercial segment.” said Andrea Minonne, research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. “Multiple factors drove this growth. In the Nordics, back to school was one key contributors to shipments. Renewals and continued expansion over desktop in some sectors and countries also led to an increase. New product designs based on Skylake and Windows 10 generated large interest among business users seeking enhanced mobility features and supported new form factor penetration from a low base.”
In Western Europe, Brexit may bring some additional challenges to the PC market (see IDC Expects a “Challenging Transition” as a Result of Brexit). No evidence of market contraction can be attributed directly to the referendum outcome yet. But some PC manufacturers might review their plans for next year due to uncertainty. Many vendors also said they might revise their price strategy just after the quarter’s closing. This will affect consumer behavior as many users may opt to stretch the life span of their devices rather than sustaining a price increase to purchase new ones. In enterprises, IT budgets and plans could be reviewed as businesses will be more cautious. Compromises are likely to be made as all price increases cannot be absorbed. Currency fluctuations in the U.K. and beyond are under the spotlight, affecting channel stock intake. On one hand, some vendors have looked to optimize their channel position ahead of price increases, pushing more shipments in June. On the other hand, cleaning inventories remains a key focus in some countries: stocks are not at an ideal level but the overall situation is not as bad as last year. Trends are different not only at a global level, but also within regions. In particular, Western Europe appears very fragmented: the UKI and Mediterranean regions contracted in the second quarter, while the DACH and Nordic regions were positive. The back-to-school season helped limit the PC market decline, boosting shipments in 2016Q2.
“The Western European market fared better than expected,” said Malini Paul, senior research analyst, IDC EMEA Personal Computing. “As anticipated, the commercial segment continued to drive the overall market. After several quarters of decline and a stabilization last quarter, 2016Q2 marked the return of commercial notebooks to positive double-digit growth. In the absence of Bing comparisons, the consumer segment returned to almost normal market conditions. However, inventory levels in some channels remained high. This could have an adverse impact on shipments in the next couple of quarters if products are not moving as fast as expected.”
The PC market in CEMA remains constrained by a lack of public spending, weak currency, political uncertainty, and economic slowdown. The PC market in CEE declined 8.5% YoY, in line with forecasts. The PC market in MEA performed slightly lower than forecast at -13.3% YoY.
“The CEE PC market continues to struggle, with the commercial space suffering the strongest decline at -10.5% YoY, with the lack of public sector spending in some countries as well as weak corporate deals all affecting the overall commercial space,” said Nikolina Jurisic, product manager, IDC CEMA. “The consumer space was supported by gaming computers even if volumes are still limited, and the desktop consumer space was flat compared with notebooks, dropping in the high single digits. The MEA PC market continues to suffer, however, and some of the key markets, namely Turkey and Egypt, experienced some relief. The continuation of a large-scale PC project contributed toward the growth in Egypt. At the same time, some other key markets continued to decline sharply, with Nigeria and Saudi Arabia halving shipments YoY due to currency issues as well as low oil prices.”
Kaspersky has identified an advanced phishing campaign targeting employees with personalised emails and attached documents disguised as HR policy updates.
This campaign marks a significant escalation in phishing tactics, with attackers tailoring not only the email body, but also the attachments by addressing individual recipients, showcasing an unprecedented level of customisation. The goal was to lure the victim into entering their corporate email credentials.
The attackers likely prepared by parsing employee names to make the campaign targeted and more convincing.
The emails feature a deceptive body: a fraudulent “verified sender” badge to build trust, the recipient’s name, and an invitation to open the attached file to review remote work protocols, benefits administration and security standards. However, the whole email body is in reality just an image with no real text in it; this is done to bypass email filters.
The attached document, posing as an updated “Employee Handbook,” does not contain any actual guidelines – only a title page, a table of contents with the items that have supposedly been changed highlighted in red, a page with a QR code, supposedly for going to the full document and common instructions on how to read QR codes using a phone. The document features the victim’s name multiple times to convince that this document was created specifically for them.
If the victim scans the QR code and follows the link, they land on a fraudulent page where they are asked to enter their corporate credentials, which is what the attackers are hunting for.
“This campaign demonstrates a new level of sophistication in phishing attacks, and we may be seeing a new mailing automation mechanism that generates a separate attached document and a separate image for the email body for each recipient.
“This tactic allows to scale the attack and at the same time possibly evade traditional defenses. Organisations must prioritise advanced security measures and employee education to stay ahead of these threats,” comments Roman Dedenok, Anti-Spam Expert at Kaspersky.
Temu, the global online marketplace, has joined the International Trademark Association (INTA) as a corporate member and serves on its Anti-Counterfeiting Committee.
INTA is a global association that brings together more than 6,700 organizations, representing over 37,000 trademark professionals and brand owners across 181 countries. By joining INTA, Temu deepens its commitment to building a trusted online marketplace and advancing global IP protection through broader, cross-industry collaboration.
“INTA welcomes TEMU’s willingness to engage in anticounterfeiting initiatives, including in the Association’s annual Anticounterfeiting Workshop and Online Takedown Certificate Program which serve to share best practices and connect stakeholders,” said Alastair Gray, Director of Anti-Counterfeiting, INTA. “Constructive collaboration with these efforts can contribute to the protection of intellectual property rights for INTA members and support the removal of counterfeit products from the platform which ultimately protects consumers.”
At the 2025 INTA Annual Meeting held in San Diego in May, Temu participated in the Anti-Counterfeiting Committee Roundtable, serving as a moderator to facilitate discussions among brand owners, online platforms, and government officials on emerging technologies, best practices for collaboration, and strategies to strengthen global anti-counterfeiting efforts.
“Joining INTA and serving on its Anti-Counterfeiting Committee reflects Temu’s ongoing commitment to ensuring a trustworthy online shopping experience,” said a Temu spokesperson. “We value collaboration with industry peers and stakeholders and are dedicated to advancing collective efforts in intellectual property protection.”
Temu also participates in INTA-led online workshops, including the Online Platform Notice and Takedown Certification Program, which outlines the latest procedures and best practices used by e-commerce platforms and social media companies. These workshops aim to enhance the quality and accuracy of rights-holder notices, promoting more effective takedown processes and content moderation.
Since launching in 2022, Temu has made significant investments in IP enforcement. Its measures include comprehensive seller vetting and compliance training, 24/7 algorithmic monitoring with manual review, a dedicated IP protection portal and brand registry to streamline takedown submissions, and an internal enforcement team that handles claims with speed and accuracy.
China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled an AI computing system on Saturday that an industry expert said rivals Nvidia’s most advanced product, as the company aims to expand its footprint in the country’s booming AI sector.
The CloudMatrix 384 system made its public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai, attracting a large crowd to Huawei’s booth with its showcase of cutting-edge AI innovations.
The system has attracted significant interest from the global AI community since Huawei (HWT.UL) first introduced it in April. Industry analysts see it as a direct challenger to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, the most advanced system-level offering currently available from the U.S. chipmaker.
In an April article, Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, stated that Huawei now possesses AI system capabilities that could surpass those of Nvidia.
Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system.
A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.
Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.
Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been “moving quite fast” and named the CloudMatrix as an example.
The CloudMatrix 384 system features 384 of Huawei’s latest 910C chips and, according to SemiAnalysis, surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in certain performance metrics, despite the latter using 72 B200 chips.
SemiAnalysis attributes this performance advantage to Huawei’s strong system design, which offsets the lower power of individual chips by leveraging a greater number of them and incorporating system-level innovations.
Huawei describes the system as utilizing a “supernode” architecture that enables ultra-high-speed interconnectivity between chips.
In June, Zhang Pingan, CEO, Huawei Cloud confirmed that the CloudMatrix 384 was already operational on Huawei’s cloud platform.
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