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Analysts: PC Shipments Still Growing Strong

Shipments of new PCs rose at a healthy rate during the third quarter of 2005, according to two leading analyst firms.

Gartner says that global shipments were up 17 percent over year-ago shipments, hitting 55 million units. IDC also puts the increase in shipments at up 17 percent. However, IDC’s analysis shows a total shipment figure of just under 53 million new PCs.

Despite minor differences, the two firms’ figures were in striking agreement.

For instance, IDC’s figures showed that, despite rising fuel costs and the fact that Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast two-thirds of the way through the quarter, even U.S. shipments rose 11 percent over the same period last year to a total of 17 million.

Meanwhile, Gartner found total U.S. shipments for the quarter of 17.9 million, an increase of 10.5 percent over last year’s figure. Both firms’ estimates include desktops, mobile computers and x86 servers. Additionally, both included Apple Computer’s shipments in their estimates.

For both firms, Dell tops the list of largest PC vendors in both the U.S. and the world, followed by Hewlett-Packard. Internationally, next in line is Lenovo, which bought out IBM’s PC business in May, followed by Acer. In the U.S., Lenovo is displaced from the top three by Gateway and followed by Apple in fifth place.

Gartner gives Dell a 16.8 percent global market share compared to HP’s 15.2 percent, while IDC gives them an 18 and 16 percent share respectively. For Gartner, Lenovo holds a 7.7 percent share versus 7.4 percent for IDC.

Both firms credited much of the increase on falling costs and increasing demand for portable computers.

The outlook demonstrates that the industry is still on track to sell well over 200 million units in calendar 2005.

About the Author

Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.

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