Gartner: Worldwide PC sales for 08Q2 (click for larger)
Worldwide PC shipments grew 16% to 71.9 million units in this year's second quarter, according to Gartner, or by 15% to 70.6 million units according to IDC.
Hewlett-Packard held on to the top spot, growing slightly faster than the market (17.1% versus 16.0%), according to Gartner. However, Dell closed the gap slightly with 21.9% growth as it moved into retailing notebook PCs. Garter says: "Preliminary results showed Dell achieve over 40% year-over-year growth in mobile shipments for two consecutive quarters."
Dell continued to lead in the US market, shipping 5.25m PCs for a 31.9% market share, according to Gartner. HP shipped 4.17m units for a 25.3% share, with Apple in third spot with sales of 1.40m units for an 8.5% market share. (IDC placed Apple fourth, a few units behind Acer, but Acer's sales include Gateway and Packard Bell.)
But the EMEA region (Europe/Middle East/Afica) was bad news for Dell. HP held on to the top spot (4.46m units, 19.3% share) ahead of Acer (3.49m, 15.1%), while Dell languished in third (2.76m, 11.9%). Dell grew its PC shipments by 27%, but this was less than its rivals in the top five.
However, Asus was the star of the European show, entering the top five with 1.26m sales for a 5.4% market share. Gartner put Asus's growth at 159.1%, adding: "ASUS grew organically and expanded its presence across EMEA as a result of strong mini-notebook sales, which represented 5% of the mobile PC market shipments."
The vendor displaced was Fujitsu Siemens Computers, which used to be strong in EMEA, and has been (maybe still is) No 1 in Germany.
Although sales of Asus Eee PCs may not hold up over the long term, being seen as a major player will almost certainly encourage buyers to try its more traditional PCs.
