PC 2nd Quarter Sales Mixed

New York— The newly combined Hewlett-Packard/Compaq managed to nudge out Dell as top worldwide PC vendor for the second quarter, but Dell remained first in the U.S. market, according to industry research firms Gartner Dataquest and International Data Corp.

Overall the PC market suffered a small fall-off for the quarter with U.S. shipments decreasing 0.8 percent to 10.6 million percent and 0.6 percent worldwide to 29.9 million. Dataquest analyst Charles Smulders blamed bloated inventory levels and lower consumer spending for the dip, but saw a bright spot in the expanded corporate computer spending that took place during the period.

IDC saw a slightly positive quarter with U.S. shipments rising 1.8 percent to 11.3 million, but worldwide shipments declined just under 1 percent to 31 million. IDC also blamed excess inventory for the second quarter's performance, but said the elements are in place for the PC industry to recover for the remainder of the year. Primarily, Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker said the aging installed base and technological improvements expected to be released during this period should help sales. However, Loverde tempered this statement by saying the fragile state of the economy could easily disrupt growth.

In the United States Dataquest had Dell shipping 2.9 million units, up 15.8 percent from the second quarter of 2001, or 27.7 percent of the market. HP was a distant second, shipping 1.9 million for 18.4 percent. Despite gaining Compaq's entire share, the company shipped 14.6 percent fewer units. IBM scratched out a 2.6 percent increase on 663,000 units shipped for a 6.1 percent share, while Gateway was pummeled, losing 18.4 percent share with shipments falling to 651,000. The elimination of Compaq enabled Apple to make an appearance in the top five on its 456,000 units shipped, which gave it 4.3 percent of the market.

IDC's U.S. numbers were similar to Dataquest's in most areas, but it showed Dell growing 19.3 percent with just more than 3 million units shipped and owning 26.8 percent of the market. HP was down 13.2 percent to 1.9 million for a 17.7 percent share. IBM, Gateway and Apple rounded out IDC's top five, with IBM and Apple increasing shipments for the quarter, while Gateway shipped 18.4 percent fewer units.

The "other" category was basically flat for the quarter. It comprises 37 percent of the market on 3.9 million units shipped, Dataquest reported. IDC indicated a 2.9 percent increase to 4.4 million units shipped.

Worldwide, HP, which shipped 4.6 million units, held a half-percent market share lead over Dell with 15.5 percent, despite suffering a 16.1 percent fall-off in units shipped. Dell shipped 4.4 million units, up 13 percent, while third-place IBM and fourth-place NEC each lost about 9 percent share during the quarter. Toshiba posted a healthy 5.5 percent increase, shipping 896,000 units for 3 percent of the market, while Sony had the best quarter with unit shipments increasing 23.7 percent to 830,000 units.

HP/Compaq held the slimmest of leads over Dell on the IDC worldwide shipment's list with a 15.1 percent share on 4.7 million units shipped. However, this represented a 16.2 percent drop in units shipped compared to the same period last year. Dell managed to increase its shipments and overall market share during the quarter. On 4.6 million units shipped, a growth rate of 15.5 percent, Dell now controls 14.8 percent of the market. IBM, Fujitsu Siemens and NEC completed the list with all three shipping fewer units during the quarter.

The worldwide "other" category increased 2.8 percent to 17.6 million units and it now owns almost 56.7 percent of the market, according to IDC.