Dell Dominates Worldwide PC Market

Dell Computer capitalized on a shift in buying from consumers to commercial customers in the first quarter, retaking the lead in worldwide PC shipments from Hewlett-Packard, according to research released this week by IDC.

Dell shipped about 6 million units in the first quarter of 2003, up 24.7 percent from 4.8 million units in the first quarter of last year. HP shipped 5.5 million units, down 5.7 percent from the combined 5.8 million units shipped by HP and the former Compaq Computer in the first quarter last year.

Overall, worldwide shipments increased 2.1 percent from last year's first quarter to 34.6 million units, the third straight quarter of growth, said Roger Kay, director of client computing with IDC, based in Framingham, Massachusetts. "That's a bit encouraging, but it's still sluggish growth," he said.

Going Direct

Dell's direct model helped it return to the top spot it last held in the third quarter of 2002, but the main reason for the switch can be chalked up to the buying patterns of consumers versus corporations, Kay said.

Dell captured 17.3 percent of the worldwide market, while HP trailed with 15.8 percent in this year's first quarter. The study measured sales of desktops and notebooks, as well as servers based on the standard Intel architecture priced under $25,000.

Strong sales of notebook PCs lifted Toshiba into the top five vendors worldwide this quarter with 3.7 percent market share, a sign that notebooks are continuing to grow in popularity, Kay said. Toshiba sells only notebooks in the U.S., and of their 1.3 million units shipped worldwide, only about 10,000 or so are desktops, he said.

IBM was third worldwide with 1.9 million units shipped in the third quarter, representing a 5.4 percent market share. Fujitsu-Siemens Computers (Holding) was fourth with 1.7 million units, or 4.8 percent of the market. Both companies increased their shipments by 1.8 percent.

The U.S. rankings were the same, except Gateway replaced Fujitsu-Siemens in fourth place with 506,000 units shipped, or 4.3 percent of the U.S. market.

IDC is a division of International Data Group, parent company of IDG News Service.