| |
Francis Chow
re<who's buying the Celeron,
the boxmakers or end users???? >
Pentium II Outpaces AMD K6 In March
(04/27/98; 10:19 a.m. ET)
By Roger C. Lanctot, Computer Retail Week
Prospects for Intel's Pentium II processors picked up in March as
PCs based on the PII architecture outsold systems based on
Advanced Micro Devices' K6 microprocessors for the first time
since December, according to market research from PC Data.
PII-based PCs represented 30.1 percent of PCs sold in retail
stores in March, up from 22.9 percent in February, while AMD
K6-based systems captured 28.6 percent of sales, down from 31.2
percent in February, reported PC Data, in Reston, Va.
Overall, retail PC unit sales volume was up 29.4 percent in March
compared with the year-ago month, while revenue grew by 4.7
percent. Compared with February 1998, March unit PC sales grew
16.3 percent and revenue rose 18 percent. The revenue gain
reflected an increase in sales of higher-end systems during the
month. The overall average price of a PC sold in the retail channel
in March increased $17 to $1,235, compared with February.
While unit sales volume in the sub-$1,000 category increased 1
percent, all the price categories above $1,000 saw 30 percent or
better unit sales increases. As a result, PCs priced between
$1,000 and $1,500 captured 31.1 percent of unit sales, up from 27.8
percent in February, and PCs in the $1,500 to $2,000 range took in
18.8 percent of sales, up from 16.3 percent in February.
IBM was the chief beneficiary, as the company's AMD K6-based
Aptiva E26 was the best-selling retail PC in March, according to
PC Data. IBM and Hewlett-Packard saw increases in their
average system prices during March, compared with February
prices. IBM moved ahead of Packard Bell NEC into third place in
unit sales with a 14.9 percent share. Packard Bell dropped to 10.5
percent of retail unit sales.
IBM's average price increase in March was helped by the success
of the Aptiva E76, which was the fourth-best-selling PC during
the month, PC Data reported. HP had the second-best-selling
model with its Pavilion 8240, last month's best-seller. Compaq's
Presario 4550 was the third-best-selling model, and the Presario
2240 was the fifth-best-seller. |
|
