PC Biz Posts Strong Q2 Shipment Numbers

New York — Hewlett-Packard continued to gain ground on market leader Dell in the U.S. market during the second quarter, with HP boosting its market share to 18.9 percent while Dell remained with a flat, but still commanding, 32 percent of the market.

The market research firms Gartner and IDC reported the U.S. market grew overall in the 6.5 percent range, stronger than originally predicted. Gartner reported 16.6 million computers shipping, while IDC's figure was 15.9 million. This discrepancy exists due to different tracking methods.

Both companies credited portable computers as being the driving force behind the quarterly increase, although IDC noted desktop sales were also quite strong. In addition, low pricing made possible by price reductions from chip makers Intel and AMD helped keep consumers interested in the computer market.

Gartner specifically cited consumer sales as HP's main source for its increase. Dell's recently increased focus on lower pricing, service and support helped it post a strong quarter.

IDC and Gartner had HP increasing its unit shipments by just over 15 percent, more than double Dell's increase for the quarter. However, the gain did little to offset Dell's commanding lead, having out-shipped HP by a very healthy 5.3 million units to 3.1 million units during the period.

Gateway and Apple also saw a double-digit bump in units shipped and market-share growth. Gateway shipped about 16 percent more units during the quarter, compared with the same period the year before, while Apple's ship number jumped 15 percent.

Lenovo, which primarily sells to corporate customers, managed to increase unit shipments by 5 percent while its market share remained flat at around 4 percent.

The only segment to show a loss was the “other” category, which suffered about a 1 point falloff in shipments and a 2 percent decline in market share.