HP grabs global PC lead from Dell: Gartner

Stan Beer
Thursday, 19 October 2006 15:47

Your IT - Home IT

For the first time since the fourth quarter of 2003, Hewlett-Packard moved into the No. 1 position for worldwide PC shipments in the third quarter of 2006, according to preliminary results by research group Gartner.

HP performed well across all regions, as its worldwide PC shipments in Q3 2006 increased 15.4% year-over-year, Dell experienced its lowest year-over-year growth in the company’s history, as worldwide PC shipments increased just 3.6% in Q3.

HP's market share reached 16.3%, overtaking Dell whose worldwide PC market share slipped to 16.1%.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 59.1 million units in the third quarter of 2006, a 6.7% increase from the same period last year. The US PC market experienced a year-over-year shipment decline of 2%, the first decline since 2002.

“HP continues to take better advantage of the faster growth segments such as the consumer market. The company’s share trajectory reflects its improvements in operational execution and changes in marketing,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner Dataquest’s Client Computing Markets Group. “Dell felt the effects of the weak sales in the US market, and it gave up some ground.”

“Two factors that contributed to the poor performance in the US market were continued weakness in the professional desk-based market, and the carry-over effect from strong sales in the second quarter,” said Ms. Kitagawa. “Strong sales to the home market, fueled by solid back to school sales and mobile PCs could not offset the decline in other areas.”