Apple sales through distribution expand significantly in Q1

The amount of Apple products being handled by distribution across Western Europe continues to rise as demand for the vendor's tablets, notebooks and smartphones carries on spiralling upwards. According to the latest figures from Context, which tracks vendor performances, Apple is bucking the market trend with growth in its key product segments. The vendor saw its sales through non-Apple owned IT distribution channels in Western Europe grow by 42% in revenue terms in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period in 2011. Driving that growth were around one million iPad sales via distribution in Europe over the last two quarters with revenues growing by 180% in Q1 year-on-year. Notebook sales bucked a market trend, which has seen revenues decline by 8.9%, with Apple delivering growth of 4.2% for Q1 and desktop also rose by 16.4%. More iPhones are also being sold via distribution with revenues of that product growing via the channel by 54.9% compared to the same period a year ago. Jeremy Davies, CEO and co-founder of Context, said that Apple had traditionally been more of a retail player not showing up widely on the distribution radar, but that had changed. "The figures show that the company is clearly engaging more with IT channels in an attempt to get increased traction in the prosumer space across Europe," he said.