PC sales across Europe, the Middle East and Africa were higher than expected in the first calendar quarter of 2007, rising over 13 percent compared to the same period a year ago. However, the trend is being driven by notebook shipments as more buyers leave desktops behind.

According to preliminary data from analyst firm IDC, total PC sales were up 13.2% to 19.4m units in the EMEA region. Soaring portable PC sales, which shot up by 34.3 percent, more than compensated for flat desktop sales. Portable PC sales are now well established as higher than desktops in the region, helped by successes in the Middle East and in central and eastern Europe, and by a strong consumer market.

Similarly, the rapid growth of Acer is offsetting the decline in fortunes of Dell. In a statement, IDC said that “Dell continued to suffer from slower corporate demand and retail competition in the consumer space”, leading to a 1.3 percent sales decline compared to the first quarter of 2006. But Acer grew by 46.7 percent to become the second biggest European PC seller behind HP, which is continuing to make gains and grew by 24.5 percent to remain the distant leader.

Windows Vista “did not act as a major market PCbooster in Q1”, IDC reported, but, together with new processors, “certainly contributed” to growth.

IDC’s thoughts on Vista echo those of fellow analyst Gartner, which last week also issued preliminary results and suggested the latest Windows release “had a very limited impact” on demand.