HP heads up Q4 PC OEM rankings
By Colleen Taylor -- EDN, March 7, 2007
Despite the negative headlines it incurred throughout the year for its pretexting executive scandal, some analysts say that 2006 will go down as a stellar year for Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP).
The company racked up impressive market-share gains that allowed it to capture the top spot in OEM rankings for the second half of the year, according to a preliminary market share estimate from iSuppli Corp.
In Q4, HP retained the leadership position it attained during the previous quarter, shipping 11.6 million PCs, up 21.1 percent from 9.6 million in Q4 2005. This rise was more than three times higher than the overall PC industry's average of 6.3 percent growth during the same period, iSuppli said.
In contrast, fellow America-based OEM Dell shipped only 9.6 million PCs in Q4, down 8.6 percent from 10.5 million shipped during the same period in 2005. The firm noted that Dell, which has recently undertaken public initiatives to up its profitability, was the only top-five PC OEM to report a decline in Q4 shipments both sequentially and year-over-year.
"HP's resurgence was the most remarkable event in the PC industry in 2006," Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst of compute platforms at iSuppli, said in a statement. "The company clearly has momentum on its side. Furthermore, with Dell adjusting to its senior management changes—including the return of Michael Dell as the company's chief operating officer—HP is likely to continue to make gains."
China-based Lenovo held onto third place in the firm's rankings, with shipments of 4.8 million in Q4, up from 4.4 million a year earlier. However, Lenovo's lead over fourth-placed Acer Inc. shrank from 1.3 million units in the Q3 to only 348,000 units in Q4. The closing of the market-share gap shows that Acer of Taiwan came on strong Q4, iSuppli said, with year-over-year unit growth of 42.7 percent.
Nevertheless, Dell managed to hold on to the OEM ranking's top spot for the full year 2006, with HP following very close behind. Third-ranked Lenovo achieved 7 percent market share in 2006, rising from 6.4 percent in 2005. However, Lenovo is facing a mounting threat from Acer, which attained a market share of 5.5 percent in 2006, up from 4.4 percent in 2005. Acer in 2006 increased its PC shipments at almost twice the percentage rate of Lenovo.
Worldwide PC shipments in Q4 amounted to 66.7 million units, up 11 percent sequentially and up 6.3 percent from 62.7 million during the same period in 2005.
