Dell Market Share Slips As PC Shipments Increase: Gartner

Dell Inc.'s share of the PC market slipped in the first quarter as worldwide shipments increased by more than 13 percent over a year ago, an analyst firm said.

While maintaining its No. 1 position worldwide, Dell's share fell to 16.5 percent from 16.9 percent in the same period last year, Gartner Inc. said. Nevertheless, Dell shipped 10.2 percent more PCs worldwide in the first quarter than a year ago.

Worldwide shipments totaled 57 million units, a 13.1 percent increase from a year ago. Most regions performed as expected, except for the U.S. PC market, which exceeded projections due to strong home desktop demand, Gartner said. Lower prices drove U.S. demand.

U.S. PC shipments totaled 16.4 million units in the quarter, a 7.4 percent increase from a year ago, but Dell's U.S. shipments were almost flat. The company's performance continued the trend of slowing growth that began in the third quarter of last year, and marked the first time the company posted growth below the U.S. market average, Gartner said.

Among the top five vendors, No. 2 Hewlett-Packard Co. increased its share more than a percent to 14.9 percent. Acer increased its share to 5 percent from 3.9 percent, while Lenovo and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens fell to 6 percent from 6.1 percent and 3.9 percent from 4.2 percent, respectively.

Gartner also estimated that chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices continued to increase its market share in the quarter, making it the seventh consecutive quarter that AMD gained market share in the worldwide PC market. Competition with rival Intel intensified during the period, particularly in the channel, Gartner said.

Gartner said the numbers released this week were preliminary and it planned to release final figures to clients soon.