The worldwide personal computer industry experienced a growth rate of 15 percent in 1998, according to new numbers from Dataquest Inc. The U.S. and European PC markets accounted for nearly 65 percent of all 1998 PC shipments, and the Dataquest numbers indicate that as many as 37 percent of U.S. households are now connected to the Internet. Compaq continued to lead the worldwide PC industry with nearly 14 percent market share in 1998. IBM held onto the No. 2 position, but Dell closed the gap between the two vendors: Dell grew 65 percent last year, pulling strongly away from Hewlett-Packard with only a 25.5 percent growth rate for the year. More information is available on Dataquest's web site at http://www.dataquest.com .