iSuppli: HP, Dell Tops in Worldwide PC Shipments

Dell gained back some share of the worldwide PC market in the second quarter of 2008, thanks to its retail and channel strategies, but the company still ranked behind Hewlett-Packard, according to research company iSuppli.

The iSuppli report, released Oct. 2, showed that HP shipped a total of 13.4 million desktops and notebook during the second quarter of 2008, a more than 19 percent increase from 2007. Dell increased its shipments by 21 percent for a total of 11.2 million.

It was the fourth consecutive quarter that Dell, once the world's top supplier of PCs, gained back worldwide market share. This trend seems to reflect Dell's aggressive push into the consumer retail market and its channel strategy to boost enterprise sales.

For the quarter, PC shipments grew 14.5 percent worldwide and totaled 70.2 million units, according to iSuppli. Overall, the report points to an aggressive worldwide PC market that does not seem to reflect the current financial crisis on Wall Street or the growing concerns with the credit industry in the United States.

"PC shipments came in higher than forecast," Matthew Wilkins, an analyst with iSuppli, wrote in the report. "iSuppli maintains its enthusiasm for the PC market in 2008, despite the challenging conditions. iSuppli's latest forecast for the 2008 PC market estimates unit growth of 12.5 percent."

However, the numbers iSuppli supplied did not take into account the current situation on Wall Street, which began in September with the failures at Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.), Fannie Mae and Lehman Brothers. While the consumer market is believed to be driving most of the worldwide PC market, the current financial crisis could persuade IT departments to put off upgrading their hardware, especially desktops and notebooks, which could slow down the overall PC market.

The iSuppli report also did not specifically point to reasons why the PC market grew at a double-digit rate during the quarter. One reason that IDC has seen an increase in the PC market is the newfound interest in low-cost notebooks such as the Asus Eee PC, the HP Mini-Note and the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. Most, but not all, of these notebooks use the Intel Atom processor, and have proven popular in the United States, Western Europe and emerging-market countries as alternatives to full-sized notebooks.

After HP and Dell, Acer ranked third in worldwide PC shipments, according to iSuppli. The company shipped a total of 6.6 million PCs in the second quarter, an increase of 17 percent from 2007. Those numbers also now incorporate PC shipments from Gateway and Packard Bell, which were both acquired by Acer.

Lenovo ranked fourth in the report as the company shipped 5.5 million PCs during the quarter, an increase of 14.4 percent. Finally, Toshiba ranked fifth with 3.1 million PC shipments, an increase of 23.9 percent.