Gartner: PC sales increased 13 percent in Q2

Stamford (CN) - Replacement sales remain the driving factor behind growing PC sales. Research firm Gartner estimates total PC shipments in the second quarter of this year at 43 million, a 13.3 percent increase over the same period last year. Dell continued to expand its share in the worldwide PC market.

Gartner’s results are about in line with general expectation and reflecting seasonal trends. Charles Smulders, vice president of Gartner’s Computing Platforms Worldwide group said that the professional market PC sales market - was "on track". Sales climbed from 37.8 million to 42.8 million on a year-to-year basis. The industry was able to sell 45.3 million PCs in the first three quarters of this year, representing a 13.4 percent increase over the first quarter of last year.

Dell retained its leading position on a vendor basis, both worldwide and in the US. According to Gartner, Dell was able to grow its business at double-digit rate across all regions, selling 7.1 million PCs - which translates to a growth of 22.5 percent compared to last year, when the company sold 5.8 million computers. Dell now holds a worldwide market share of 16.5 percent an increase of 1.0 points over 2003.

Hewlett-Packard’s worldwide year-on-year growth was slightly above industry average, as the firm was able to post gains in Asia/Pacific, including Japan. Total market grew slightly from 14.0 to 14.3 percent. The top 5 of the largest PC vendors is completed by IBM, Fujitsu-Siemens and Acer with current market shares of 5.9, 3.5 and 3.0 percent, respectively.

In the United States, PC shipments totaled 14 million units in the second quarter of 2004, an 11.4 percent increase from the second quarter of. Gartner analysts said the US PC industry’s growth was attributed to healthy sales in the professional market. Dell now holds 29.5 (plus 1.2 points) percent market share, followed by Hewlett-Packard with 17.4 (plus 0.1 point) percent. Gateway holds 7.3 percent, IBM 5.1 percent and Apple 3.5 percent).

Both worldwide as well as in the US the top five selling PC builders were able to post gains in sales as well as in market shares, significantly reducing shares of smaller companies.