Forrester survey: Dell, HP and Lenovo rule the PC market

In a recent and detailed Forrester report ($775) 565 PC decision makers at North American and European corporations were polled about their PC and laptop purchasing habits. Dell has a commanding lead as the preferred supplier to enterprises, with HP and Lenovo rounding out the top tier (coincidentally, the report was sent to me by Michael@Dell.com).

Given a lack of substantial product differentiation among the vendors, Dell scored points on its pricing and support for enterprises. Lenovo was singled out for product quality and the strength of its business relationship with customers.

In addition, the survey found that 90 percent of enterprises standardize on a desktop and laptop configuration from a single vendor, and that Dell, HP and Lenovo will be primary suppliers to at least 82 percent of the firms.

Desktop virtualization is mostly confined to specific use cases, such as call centers. Laptops purchases are growing as a percentage of overall end user computing devices. The ratio of desktops to notebooks has gone from 75/25 two years ago to 70/30 today, driven by the business value of mobilizing employees.

The report cites some of the concerns customers have with the hardware vendors, including lack of communication and rotating account representatives.

The report also suggests that a major PC refresh cycle will begin in mid-2008, driven by more affordable systems, with 2 GB of memory standard, that can run ably Vista and Office.