eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Michael Dell expects consolidation among vendors in a PC market that continues to see shipments decline worldwide.
According to a report in Reuters, the chairman and CEO of his namesake company said during a roundtable discussion in India that the world’s top three PC makers—Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard and his own firm, Dell—will be able to grab as much as 80 percent of the global market within the next five to seven years. And he expects his company to continue to grow its notebook business faster than its rivals.
“In the first half of this year, we outgrew the two in notebooks, and we have grown now 10 quarters in a row,” Michael Dell said, according to the news site.
He wasn’t clear on how the consolidation will play out. According to the latest numbers from IDC analysts, Lenovo, HP and Dell in the second quarter accounted for 53.3 percent of the worldwide PC market, with Lenovo on top with 20.3 percent. HP had 18.5 percent and Dell 14.5 percent. Apple came in fourth, with Acer and Asus tied for fifth. Only Apple saw positive year-to-year growth in shipments.
PC shipments have declined steadily since 2011, due in part to the rise in popularity of mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. IDC analysts are expecting PC shipments to fall another 8.7 percent this year over 2014 as the result of several factors, from the large inventory of PCs already in the market to Microsoft’s decision to offer free upgrades to Windows 10 for the first three months after the release of the operating system. They don’t expect an upturn in the space until 2017, when systems running Windows 10 and powered by new chips from Intel are in the market in force.
Despite a shaky PC market that has dinged his company as well as other PC and component makers, Michael Dell has said for years that PCs continue to be an important part of his company, despite his efforts to expand the vendor’s reach in the data center to compete with HP and others as a complete enterprise IT solutions provider.
“We have been able to grow even though the [PC] market is shrinking and, of course, our business goes well beyond the device into data center, software, services and security,” Michael Dell said, according to Reuters.
Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners took Dell private two years ago in a $24.9 billion buyout, a move the CEO has said freed the company to be more nimble, innovative and aggressive. Meanwhile, HP in November will complete a breakup plan that will have a new company, called HP Inc., selling PCs and printers, while another firm—Hewlett-Packard Enterprise—will focus on enterprise IT solutions and services.