HP Crushes Dell, Acer in Q4 2010 PC Shipments

Hewlett-Packard showed strong PC sales in the final quarter of last year and was able to beat its rivals. Dell remained in the second spot and increased its lead over Acer.

HP sold 18.0 million units, up from 15.9 million PCs in the third quarter, IHS iSuppli said. Dell's shipments were flat at 11.3 million units, while Acer dropped from 11.0 million to 9.5 million PCs. For the entire year, HP sold 64.8 million computers, followed by Dell with 43.8 million and Acer with 41.5 million.  

"A little more than one year after a prolonged decline in shipments caused Dell to lose its customary second-place ranking to rival Acer, Dell now seems to have regained a firm hold on the No. 2 rank," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms, for IHS.

"Acer in the third quarter of 2009 had surged to the No. 2 spot on the strength of its strong sales of netbook PCs to consumers and a generally buoyant consumer market. However, with momentum for consumer PCs waning and in light of growing competition from media tablets, Acer’s gains have been reversed."

Overall PC sales were 93.1 million in the fourth quarter of last year, up 5.7% from 88.1 million in the third quarter and a 4.7% improvement from 88.9 million PCs in Q4 2009. iSuppli expects the PC market to break the 100 million mark per quarter soon. It is interesting to note that it was the desktop market that drove PC sales in the fourth quarter and not the notebook.

"Desktop sales in the fourth quarter were buoyed by strong corporate demand," Wilkins said.

"The corporate PC segment continues to outperform the consumer market as companies replace systems with newer, faster, more efficient computers."

Total sales for the year were 345.4 million units, up 14.2% from 302.4 million in 2009, Wilkins said.