HP growth doubles overall market, which continues apace despite sluggish economy.Hewlett Packard continues to distance itself from the PC manufacturing pack, thanks to strong channel performance and its broad laptop portfolio, according to the latest figures from research firm iSuppli.
HP now owns nearly 19 percent of the worldwide PC market, shipping 13.2 million units in Q1, a 23 percent increase from the same quarter last year. HP’s growth nearly doubled gains by the overall PC market, which itself continues to fare well despite the troubled global economy.
Overall, worldwide PC shipments rose 12 percent year over year to 69.9 million units in Q1. That figure matches the average quarterly growth in the industry over the past five years.
“Hewlett-Packard continues to outgrow the overall PC market and the competition due to a number of factors, including its strong channel presence and its success in capitalizing on the strength in the notebook segment,” wrote Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research at iSuppli.
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Preliminary Q1 2008 Worldwide Shipments
(shipments in millions)
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| Ranking | Company | Q1 2008
Shipments | Q1 2007
Shipments | Year-to-year
growth | Market
share |
| 1 | Hewlett-Packard | 13.2 | 10.7 | 23.3% | 18.9% |
| 2 | Dell | 10.8 | 8.8 | 20.0% | 15.4% |
| 3 | Acer | 6.7 | 6.1 | 10.5% | 9.7% |
| 4 | Lenovo | 4.8 | 4.0 | 21.2% | 6.9% |
| 5 | Toshiba | 3.1 | 2.6 | 20.3% | 4.4% |
| Others | 31.2 | 30.0 | 4.1% | 44.7% |
| Total | 69.9 | 62.4 | 12.1% | 100% |
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|
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| source: iSuppli |
Dell and Acer remained the number two and three PC makers respectively. Lenovo and Toshiba rounded out the top five.
iSuppli credited strong retail performance for Dell’s 20 percent jump in Q1 shipments to 10.8 million units. The rise gives Dell 15.4 percent share of the worldwide PC market.
Acer, meanwhile leveraged recent purchases of Gateway and Packard Bell to grow shipments 10.5 percent year over year, moving a total of 6.7 million units worldwide. That broke a market-share dead heat with Asian rival Lenovo which now trails Acer’s 10 percent share by nearly 3 percent.
According to Wilkins, overall Q1 sales slightly exceeded expectations due to strong demand for mobile computers. “However, the financial markets are still adjusting to the effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States, as are the consumers and businesses who have had their financial positions impacted,” Wilkins wrote.
Buyers will continue to favor laptops over desktops, according to iSuppli, which expects PC shipments to continue bucking the down economy.
“We now forecast global PC unit shipment growth in the range of 10 to 11 percent this year,” wrote Wilkins, “Exciting new developments in the area of low-cost PCs will help stimulate PC demand, along with bringing them to a wider audience.”
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Hewlett-Packard 
