Dell Top U.S. PC Vendor, HP First Worldwide

-- TWICE, 10/18/2007 6:30:00 AM

New York — Third-quarter PC shipments in the United States rose the anticipated 5 percent with Dell retaining the top spot, while worldwide shipments were a healthy 15 percent with Hewlett-Packard leading the way, according to IDC and Gartner.

Despite retaining its lead in the U.S. market, Dell continued its struggles with Gartner indicating Dell shipped 5.5 percent fewer units than during the same period in 2006. Meanwhile, the research firm had second-place HP growing 16.5 percent and third-place Apple a tremendous 37.2 percent. IDC’s numbers were similar except its report had Apple growing only 15.9 percent.

Rounding out the top five on each company’s list were Toshiba and Gateway with the former firm posting a healthy double-digit growth and the latter losing about 14 percent.

Mikako Kitagawa, principle analyst for Gartner’s client computing markets group, said economic problems in the United States, such as lower consumer confidence and the sub-prime lending problems on Wall Street, could have lent a hand in the softer-than-expected back-to-school sales that were experienced during the quarter.

Worldwide HP was the top shipper followed by Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba. All five companies posted gains with Acer leading the way growing more then 58 percent, due to its acquisition of Gateway.

 Gartner Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q07

 (Thousands of Units)

IDC Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide PC Shipments*, Q3 2007 (Preliminary)

 (Units Shipments are in thousands)

* IDC estimates prior to financial earnings reports.