HP keeps PC-maker crown
Published: 19 Jul 2007 10:11 BST
HP continued its sprint ahead of the competition in the second quarter of 2007, remaining the number one PC vendor in the world. While Dell has continued to struggle, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba showed positive signs, each outpacing the worldwide PC market growth rate of 12.5 percent, according to IDC.
HP continued its successful run of strong quarters, leading all PC makers by shipping 11.3 million units, good enough for 19.3 percent of the overall market. Dell's global shipments were down almost five percent — to about 9.5 million PCs — from a year ago, but the company remained in second place behind HP.
Dell has taken a hard fall, though it has at least taken steps to recovery. The company, in trying to reclaim its momentum with consumers, is now offering a line of its PCs in Wal-Mart stores, a fairly bold move and a departure from its traditional sales model.
Meanwhile, HP has experienced "rapid growth, and they have room to run," according to IDC analyst Loren Loverde. "If you look at where they're growing, [they're] making big strides in the US despite a relatively soft market. They're clearly taking advantage of Dell's misfortunes."
Lenovo has also rebounded well. The Chinese PC maker made good strides in the second quarter, taking back its third-place mantle from Acer, which slipped down to fourth place. Lenovo made up a lot of ground outside of Asia-Pacific.
"Since acquiring IBM's PC [business], Lenovo shipments outside of Asia have been declining and weren't able to get any growth," Loverde said. "So the last couple of quarters they've been able to grow, and that's a really excellent turnaround."
In the US market, Dell still leads the pack — for now. With 28.4 percent of the market, its shipments were down more than 10 percent. HP is nipping at its heels with a 23.6 percent share, followed by Gateway and Apple, both with 5.6 percent, and Toshiba, with 5.3 percent, according to IDC.
Rival PC analyst firm Gartner places Acer in fourth place in the US and knocks Apple down to sixth. Gartner shows Acer, which has only recently re-entered the US market, with 163.9 percent growth over a year ago, shipping almost 900 million units, an astounding increase for the US, a market that, just a few months ago, was generally discouraging.
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