HP WIDENS LEAD OVER DELL IN WORLD MARKET

[Anonymous]

HP widens lead over Dell in PC world market
Hewlett-Packard
extended its lead over Dell in the worldwide personal computer market
in the fourth quarter, according to a report by two technology research
firms.The analyses from the firms, IDC and Gartner, produced slightly
different numbers but the same general results: With overall PC sales
unspectacular, HP managed to outpace the rest of the market and lead
the worldwide tally of PC sales for the second quarter in a row.Sales
of PCs increased about 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter, according to
Gartner, while IDC pegged the rise at 8.7 percent. Both firms noted
declines in the U.S. market, the second consecutive period with a
domestic slump.One culprit appeared to be heavy competition from
flat-panel television sets and other consumer electronics over the
holiday season.Also, many people may have been holding off on PC
purchases because of the Jan. 30 consumer release of the new Windows
Vista operating system from Microsoft. But analysts at both firms said
the Vista effect was hard to measure — many consumers just as likely
took advantage of low PC prices that manufacturers offered to clear
their inventories before Vista arrives.For all of 2006, PC sales rose
around 9 percent to about 230 million. The leading vendor for the year
was Dell, but just barely. Dell and HP each registered 16 or 17 percent
market share in the IDC and Gartner tallies. Lenovo Group was third
with 7 percent, while Acer had 6 percent and Toshiba 4 percent.HP ate
away at Dell’s dominance by outselling its rival in the third quarter
and keeping it up in the fourth. HP’s sales jumped 24 percent in the
fourth quarter — its best such period since 2000 — while Dell’s sales
dropped about 9 percent. The shift left HP with 17 to 18 percent of the
worldwide market in the fourth quarter, to Dell’s 14 to 15 percent.The
trend tracks the opposite directions that Dell’s and HP’s stock prices
have been heading the past two years. HP has retooled itself as a
leaner giant under its chief executive officer, Mark Hurd, while Dell
has struggled with strategic questions, an accounting investigation and
huge laptop battery recall.Dell remains the leading vendor in the
United States, with about 31 percent market share in all of 2006,
according to IDC. HP was second at 22 percent, followed by Gateway at
6.7 percent, Apple at 4.7 percent and Toshiba at 4.3 percent.Even with
the Vista launch, Gartner expects PC sales to only slightly increase
their pace in 2007, with 9.9 percent growth in units sold. IDC expects
to see a slightly better rise.China’s Lenovo Group, which bought IBM’s
PC unit in 2005, remained in third place with 7.3 percent of the
worldwide market, IDC said. Lenovo’s North Carolina-based PC division
shipped 4.77 million units worldwide, an increase of 8.5 percent from a
year earlier.

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January 18, 2007 at 11:10 AM