Gartner researchers say that worldwide PC shipments totalled 57 million units in Q106, a 13.1% increase over the same period last year, on its preliminary figures. "Most regions performed in line with Gartner's expectation with the exception of the US PC market which exceeded projections due to strong home desktop demand," says the company.
Dell was the leading supplier, shipping 9.4 million units for a 16.5% market share. It was followed by HP (14.9%), Lenovo (6.0%), Acer (5%) and Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens (3.9%).
Gartner says:
Strong consumer demand was an important growth driver in the United States during the quarter. US PC shipments totaled 16.4 million units in the quarter, a 7.4% increase. Dell's US shipments were almost flat compared with one year ago. This continues the trend of slowing growth which began in 3Q05, but it is the first time that Dell has exhibited growth below the US market average. A weaker performance in the consumer segment was largely to blame.
So now we know why Dell bought Alienware....
Gartner doesn't mention Apple, but Apple's earnings press release says it shipped 1,112,000 Macs, for an increase of 4%. Given Gartner's total of 57,138,000 PC sales, Apple's worldwide market share would be 1.9%, or around half of a Fujitsu Siemens. Considering it's in the middle of a brave platform transition to a differently-compatible processor, that looks pretty good to me....
