South China Morning Post. Q2 PC numbers.........
scmp.com
TuesdayÿÿAugust 5ÿÿ1997
Compaq still on top as sales of PCs rise 15pc
BLOOMBERG in Boston
A market research firm says second-quarter personal computer shipments rose 15 per cent worldwide, buoyed by a stronger than expected performance in the United States.
International Data Corp said Compaq Computer Corp took the top spot for the seventh quarter in a row, with IBM again coming second.
Hewlett-Packard Co, which had slipped to fourth behind Dell Computer Corp in the first quarter, reclaimed third place.
Compaq, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell continued the trend of the big getting bigger and the small getting smaller.
All four companies gained market share at the expense of smaller PC makers such as Digital Equipment Corp.
Senior analyst for IDC John Brown said: "Compaq isn't taking market share from Dell and IBM, they're taking it from the smaller guys."
Worldwide, PC shipments rose to 18.2 million from 15.8 million in the year-ago period. PCs were strong in the US, where shipments rose 19 per cent to 7.16 million from 6.04 million. That was stronger than the 17 per cent IDC had forecast.
Mr Brown said: "The market was basically very strong, but we had some slowness in Japan due to the consumer market." He said high prices and a weaker economy in Japan had kept consumers at bay.
Europe was stronger than expected, boosted by robust showings from Britain and France. IDC said a small price war in Britain had sparked higher shipments during the quarter.
Compaq shipped 2.17 million units, expanding its share of the global PC market to 11.9 per cent from 9.7 per cent. IBM shipped 1.66 million as its market share rose to 9.1 per cent from 8.8 per cent.
Hewlett-Packard shipped 1.04 million units and bumped up its market share to 5.7 per cent from 4.4 per cent, while Dell shipped 1.02 million as its share expanded to 5.6 per cent from 4.2 per cent.
Shipments for Packard Bell NEC, which sells its computers in the retail market, rose 5 per cent to 973,000 but its market share slipped to 5.3 per cent from 5.9 per cent.
Apple Computer's share of the market fell again, dipping to 3.8 per cent from 5.6 per cent. Even so, that marked an improvement from the 3.3 per cent share it garnered in the first quarter.
The best performer in the US was again Compaq, shipping 967,000 units, up from 702,000 in the year-ago period. Dell made the largest gains, shipping 64 per cent more PCs. |
