According to Gartner, for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2003, Hewlett-Packard moved into the numero uno position for worldwide personal computer shipments. The preliminary statistics show that HP’s lead over Dell is 110,000 units. Worldwide personal computer shipments totaled 59.1 million units in the third quarter of 2006, a 6.7 percent increase from the same period last year. The U.S. personal computer market experienced a year-over-year shipment decline of two percent -- though Apple didn't experience the dip. The last time the U.S. Personal Computer market suffered a decline in personal computer shipments was the second quarter of 2002.
Dell held onto the number one position in the U.S. Personal Computer market in the third quarter of 2006 despite a 7.1 percent decline in shipments year-over-year (see Table 2). The company suffered from weak desktop growth, which offset solid laptop growth across all segments. HP capitalized on strong demand in the home market. Offerings of AMD-based systems aimed at consumers helped HP’s performance in the home market.
According to IDC (whose report is based on what it considers third quarter sales), Apple's market share of the personal computer industry in North America grew to 5.8 percent from 4.3 percent from the same period in 2005. Quarterly unit sales were up from 664,000 to 975,000, the research firm says. IDC places Apple number for among U.S. vendors, trailing Dell, HP and Gateway.
Worldwide personal computer shipment growth slipped to 7.9 percent in the third quarter of the year, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. Overall growth was down from 9.8 percent in the second quarter and double-digit growth over the prior three years. International shipments continued to expand at roughly 11 percent year on year, but slow growth in the U.S. pulled down overall results.
Growth in Europe has recovered after a slow second quarter, but a similar adjustment seems to have occurred in the U.S. during the third quarter, reports IDC. With a dominant share of the U.S. market and in the midst of efforts to refocus its business, Dell felt the brunt of the shortfall with shipments falling nearly seven percent year on year in the U.S. Hewlett-Packard was able to leverage strong growth in international markets and relatively strong performance in the United States to boost overall volume incrementally ahead of its rival. Although HP volume was larger by roughly 28 thousand units, on volumes of nearly 10 million, IDC considers this is a statistical tie.
"This quarter's results show a similar volatility to last quarter, with strong international sales and growth in portables reflecting continued demand while we saw weak results for Dell and the U.S. market overall," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "Dell has had some negative publicity recently regarding its battery recall but it is hard to attribute the third quarter results to bad publicity alone. Dell will likely be very aggressive in the fourth quarter, and we will see how similar battery recalls affect other vendors. These factors may cut into fourth quarter growth, but overall we don't see a broad threat to fourth quarter growth."
"In the U.S. market, the focus continues to be on the transition from desktops to notebooks, with notebook growth being the sole bright spot while desktop shipments continued to decline," said Bob O'Donnell, vice president, Clients and Displays at IDC. "The impact of Dell's decline was particularly acute in the U.S. and led to a shrinking of the market versus the same period last year."
