New York — PC shipments grew about 14 percent in 2007 worldwide with about 270 million units shipping, according to the research firms IDC and Gartner.
Hewlett-Packard remained tops worldwide, while Dell retained its first place position in the U.S. market despite losing 3 pointS of market share and shipping 4 percent fewer units compared with 2006.
HP’s worldwide shipments increased 30 percent to 49.4 million units in 2007, giving it 18.2 percent of the market. Dell was a distant second, shipping almost 38 million computers with its shipment level remaining nearly flat compared with the previous year, according to Gartner’s data. Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba closed out the top five with each posting shipment gains between 18 percent and 33 percent.
In the United States only Dell managed to lose ground during the year. Dell kept a fair, but steadily shrinking, lead over HP in the U.S. market, reported IDC. For the year it shipped 19.6 million units, down 4 percent, for 28 percent of the market. On the plus side Dell did perform well during the fourth quarter, IDC said, boosting shipments by 15 percent compared with the same period in 2006. IDC credited the company’s move into the retail channel for the growth. HP shipped 18.8 percent more computers for a total of 16.7 million during the year compared with 2006 for 23.9 percent of the market.
Apple continued its surge in the U.S. computer market, enjoying a 31 percent increase in shipments, for a total of 4.1 million, placing the company in third place on IDC’s list, with 5.8 percent of the market
Notebook maker Toshiba had a very healthy 23.4 percent increase in shipments, for a total of 3.5 million last year.
IDC said the newly combined Acer/Gateway tripled its shipments during the year, climbing 171 percent to 3.8 million.