The PC industry doesn't seem to be suffering too badly from the troubled U.S. economy, according to reports by both research firms Gartner and IDC. The Associated Press says the two firms estimate growth in PC shipments was in the double-digit range last quarter, with Gartner saying 12.3% and IDC estimating 14.6%.
The two firms also peg the increase in U.S. shipments in the 3% to 3.5% range, which IDC says is slower than the previous quarter's 8.8% growth and the slowest since the flat growth experienced in the fourth quarter of 2006. That said, this sluggish rate of growth may have had less of a global impact this time, since the AP says the U.S. market's share of worldwide shipments slumped from 25% last year to 23%.
Gartner and IDC have also computed some market share numbers. By Gartner's count, Dell trails HP's 18.3% global market share with a 14.9% share, while according to IDC, HP had 19.1% of shipments last quarter to Dell's 15.7%. The two research companies agree that HP and Dell experienced the same rate of growth last quarter, though. Further down the PC maker ladder, IDC says Acer's market share sits behind Dell's at 9.9%—up from 6.9% a year before—while Lenovo is in fourth place with 6.9% of global shipments, a 0.3-point rise from last year.
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