HP had the fastest growing PC biz w/ growth of about 39%, especially in retail mkt
[HP's Pavillion 9K, 8K, 7K, 6K for consumer all use AMD chips]
Earlier this week, when it reported earnings, Intel Corp. said its sales growth in Europe during the third quarter was weaker than expected because of the falling value of the euro against the U.S. dollar, higher oil prices and lackluster consumer confidence. The Santa Clara-based chip giant, which supplies about 80 percent of the world's PC chips, also disappointed Wall Street with an anemic sales forecast for the fourth quarter, which is typically the busiest quarter of the season.
Dell Computer Corp. earlier this month said that sales in Europe were trending 3 percentage points below its expectations, but that it still expected growth of 7 percent in the third quarter vs. the second quarter.
International Data Corp., based in Framingham, Mass., said that worldwide PC sales grew 18.3 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, to 33.3 million units.
Results for the third quarter were ``in line with expectations,'' said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's worldwide PC Tracker program. ``Demand wasn't really lagging. Consumers really pushed the markets. . . . Going forward, it's not really changing our perspective.''
The data from the two market researchers was mentioned by a few Wall Street analysts in comments Friday to their sales forces. Steve Fortuna, a Merrill Lynch PC analyst, said the numbers were on track with his forecasts.
``IDC saw unit growth for Q3 on a worldwide basis of 18.3 percent and Dataquest said the number was around 15.2 percent,'' Fortuna wrote in a special intraday call. ``The average would suggest that unit shipment growth was in the area of 16-17 percent range, which is in line with our forecast.''
What the two firms do agree on is the ranking of the top four PC makers in the world. Both firms said that Compaq Computer Corp. remains the top PC vendor in the world, Dell Computer is No. 2 and Hewlett-Packard Co., with the biggest growth in shipments, surpassed International Business Machines Corp. as the third-largest PC maker worldwide.
HP had the fastest growing PC business with growth of about 39 percent in the third quarter, surpassing Compaq's growth of about 14 percent and Dell's 22 percent growth, said Gartner Dataquest.
``They have continued to take advantage of Packard Bell's and IBM's exit from the retail market,'' Smulders said.
IBM slipped to No. 4, after being in a dead heat with HP last quarter for the No. 3 position. Gartner Dataquest ranked NEC Corp. fifth.
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