IBM and Compaq are Chasing Toshiba Through the Corporate Portable PC Market -They want their Top Spot
Guest Insider by Jeremy Davies, Senior Partner and founder of CONTEXT
context1.com
Compaq and IBM have become an increased challenge for Toshiba in the commercial portable PC market in the top three European markets (France,the UK, and Germany). That is what ZD Market Intelligence's Partner, Context, a London-based IT market research company shows. The increasing competition in this market have made the top slot in sales of portable PCs to corporate accounts a highly volatile position. IBM made strong gains in July of this year, particularly in Germany, while Compaq managed to increase sales substantially in France.
IBM's success with portables in the US corporate market seems to be having a follow-on effect in Europe, and similar trends are happening in other areas as well. In July of this year, IBM's share of portable PC unit sales by US corporate resellers was almost at 50%, up from 31% a year ago. In Europe, aggressive pricing and good product availability put IBM in the top slot for portable PC sales to corporate in Germany, gave them strong growth and a No. 2 position in the UK, and modest but positive gains in France.
In the UK, Toshiba's share of unit sales by corporate resellers was down from 49.4% in July 1997 to 39.7% in July this year. Compaq's share over the same period rose from 13.6% to 18%, and IBM rose from 27% to 30%. This is an unmistakable tightening of the share race, and IBM is poised to attack Toshiba for No. 1.
In France, Toshiba's share of unit sales by corporate resellers rose slightly from 52.3% in July 1997 to 54.5%; however, while IBM increased share from 15.3% of unit sales to 16.5%, Compaq's share grew 46% from 14.9% to 21.7%. So it appears that France is Toshiba's "citadel" of market share.
Germany saw corporate unit sales in July almost evenly split between IBM (31%), Toshiba (30.5%) and Compaq (28.5%). In July last year, Toshiba led the field with 44.7% of unit sales, followed by IBM (24.6%) and Compaq (19.4%). This is a key finding because of the size of the German market, and the fact that there is more "euro-centralism" in this country market than the UK for example, where many US based multi-nationals are located.
CONTEXT data for February through to July 1998 clearly shows that the gap between the top three vendors is narrowing, especially in Germany. The UK is showing definite trends in that direction, but while the situation in France could change, at present Toshiba still maintains a commanding lead in that country, although their market share has flattened out since May.
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