Gap between HP and Dell widens in worldwide PC shipments

Framingham (MA) – Hewlett-Packard (HP) posted yet another strong quarter of PC sales, according to an IDC report. Shipments jumped by one third year over year, resulting in a clear lead worldwide while the gap to Dell in the U.S. is closing.

IDC said that the PC industry saw a healthy Q3, with overall shipment numbers rising by 15.5% over Q3 2006, coming in at 66.9 million units. With Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) exceeding expectations with a “significant increase” demand in portable PCs. The strong Euro and more investments added additional dynamic to the market, pushing EMEAs growth rate to the highest since the end of 2005, IDC said. The U.S. trailed the trend with a growth rate of 6.9%.

On a vendor basis, HP appears to have had a particularly successful quarter. Annual shipment growth was 33.0%, pushing the firm’s unit sales from 9.85 million to 13.09 million and allowed the company to gain 2.6 market share point to 19.6%. Dell, on the other hand was not able to capitalize on the market environment and posted a modest 3.8% year over year growth, which caused the company to lose 1.7 points and end up at an estimated market share of 15.2%. In Q3 2006, HP had a slight lead over Dell’s amounting to about 41,000 units ; in Q3 2007, the lead widened to more than 2.91 million PCs.

Dell was able to hold on to its lead in the U.S., despite the company saw its shipments fall by 4.8% to 5.01 million, translating into a 28.0% market share. HP increased its shipments by 16.9% to 4.35 million and gained 2.5 points and now stands at 24.3%. Overall shipments in the U.S. were 17.92 million, according to IDC.

Here are IDC’s numbers in detail :