Must Read: No niche for iPad: Why I returned mine

Topic: Hardware

PC shipments in Q1: Could have been much worse

Summary: HP is the top PC maker globally, but Lenovo is surging. In the U.S. standings, HP, Dell and Apple hold the top three spots.

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

PC shipments in the first quarter didn't scorch any growth charts, but they did avoid a predicted decline.

According to Gartner data, PC shipments in the first quarter checked in at 89 million units, up 1.9 percent from a year ago. Gartner has projected a 1.2 percent decline. IDC data shows PC unit growth of 2.3 percent in the first quarter.

In other words, the PC patient has a pulse despite a tablet onslaught.

However, there are plenty of things to worry the PC industry. For starters, India and China growth wasn’t that great. Europe Middle East and Africa PC shipments were up 6.7 percent in the first quarter compared to a year ago. In the U.S., PC shipments were 15.5 million, down 3.5 percent from a year ago.

Globally, HP grabbed share with 17.2 percent of the market. HP has been able to secure hard drive supplies and that helped a good bit. Overall, the hard drive shortage didn't hurt PC sales too much.

Lenovo delivered the most growth with 28 percent first quarter unit growth. Lenovo is now the No. 2 PC maker worldwide.

In the U.S. HP had 29 percent market share, followed by Dell and Apple.

Topic: Hardware

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11 comments
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  • U.S. Stats

    How come HP is in first and fifth place?
    WebSiteManager
    Reply Vote

    • um, no

      it isn't, HP is in first world wide and in the US
      beenman500
      Reply Vote

      • With all due respect, please look again beenman500

        In the US chart (illustration), HP appears twice.

        So, the answer to WebSiteManager is "There was a boo-boo." and pardon my use of technical language.

        Let us move to the real question: who holds the No. 5 position on the US chart? Lenovo? Or should Lenovo be in the number 4 position and Acer in fifth position?
        DannyO_0x98
        Reply Vote

      • Somebody goofed?

        @DannyO_0x98 Interesting. I wonder who the second "HP" is supposed to be.

        I also wonder if the lists reflect all sales, or if they fail to consider direct sales or sales at Wal-Mart and warehouse clubs. (I have seen some reports from Bloomberg, for example, that have ignored direct/Wal-Mart/warehouse club sales.)
        Third of Five
        Reply Vote

    • Consider the source...Gartner!

      Enough said.
      wizard57m-cnet
      Reply Vote

  • The iPad is no better than a PC

    Gartner analysts make a mistake again on the Post-PC era.

    These statistics show that despite the iPad popularity as the tablet with most sales, it still isn't causing a decline on PC shipments.

    There is no Post-PC era as some journalists say, in fact the Ultrabook laptop category is gaining a lot of popularity and analysts should begin to see that Ultrabooks are now getting cheaper, but they are also gaining more graphics power and optical disk while keeping their thin and light design at same time.
    Gabriel Hernandez
    Reply Vote

  • PC will prosper in new form factor, Touchscreen Ultrabook(Notebook+Tablet)

    Windows 8 will be big
    swisslakes
    Reply Vote

  • But but... what about the iPad PC?

    And the iPhone PC.
    They're both personal.. and computers.. they should be counted!!!

    That would make Apple #1 in the world AND the US!!!

    Well, you get the picture. :)

    And yes, that was sarcasm..
    TheWerewolf
    Reply Vote

  • @TheWerewolf

    I believe that Google would say that their "sales" are bigger than Apple's. Google tracks their successes by phone activations, not by actual sales. Apple tracks sales, but doesn't say by which channels. Microsoft counts licenses sold, but also doesn't say by which channel, so a lot may be via OEM for preloading onto new machines, so not all of them will be getting into customers hands right away.

    Everybody has their own metric.
    Joe_Raby
    Reply Vote

  • HP has it''s coprorate market share and regular consumer market share

    It's number one in coprorate market share due to it "owning" and running the Naval Marin Corps Internet. NMCI is the largest private network in the US if not the world. Billions of US tax dollars are going to HP for NMCI.

    Now you know why they were considering leaving the consumer market at one point. The consumer market was sluggish in growth and offers little profit ratio compared to the hardware, software and technology services made for corporate stuff.
    Bakabaka
    Reply Vote

  • Talked to people...

    ...in industry and government, and they said that purchasing agreements couldn't be signed in time to switch to pads this year. They're working on it as hard as they can, but details couldn't be worked out in time. Seems too many of the GSA folks were at a party and the paperwork was late...
    Tony Burzio
    Reply Vote
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