PC sales soar in June.
Stephen:
Here is a bit of information from PC Data,though it sounds like they
are talking about 'retail sales' it could be a good indication as to
how well Dell might have done.
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Wednesday July 22 11:21 AM ET
June PC sales soar
By Charles Cooper, ZDNet
The summer slowdown may have come and gone before anyone noticed.
A new report out Wednesday found that retail desktop PC sales soared in June as Windows 98 brought new buyers into the market.
Many analysts had been bracing for weak summer demand. But the report, from market research firm PC Data, based in Reston, Va., found that unit sales of PCs in June climbed more than 37 percent from May. The arrival of Windows 98, which began shipping in late June, also played a role in the sales spike, according to PC Data, which said PCs preloaded with Windows 98 represented 29 percent of all Windows-based computer sales during the month. The report said most of those sales occurred in the last two weeks of June.
Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ) which lost market share in May when it was prepping a new Windows 98-based product line, turned out to be June's big winner. The company regained its No. 1 spot with a 25.4 percent share, marking the 10th time in the last 12 months that Compaq has led the retail market.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) was No. 2. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP), which had been No.1 in May, slipped to No.3 while Packard Bell-NEC finished out the field.
At the same, however, PC Data found that the decline in selling prices continued for a second consecutive month with average prices for Windows-based PCs dipping to $1,123. Prices had been climbing through the roof for the first four months of 1998.
In part, the decline attests to the surprising strength of the market for sub-$1,000 computers. PC Data reported that June was the fifth consecutive month in which sub-$1000 PCs accounted for more then 43 percent of the retail market.
Stephen Baker, PC Data's senior hardware analyst, added that "it seems likely that the only direction PC prices will move in the remainder of the year is down." |
