PC Market Continues Growth
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The combined notebook and desktop PC market has had another stunning quarter according to IDC’s preliminary results for Q2 2005.

We love to say ‘we told you so’, because SmartOffice News has been predicting strong growth in the PC market since our December issue of DCN last year. The latest IDC figures for second quarter bear out the truth of that prediction.
IDC’s preliminary results for the combined Desktop and Notebook market show a healthy sequential rise of 14 per cent and a stunning 22 per cent growth year on year.
IDC points to a combination of government and education tenders aligned with an “unseasonably strong demand in the consumer market” as the causes behind the growth.
“More than ever IDC found that price aggression was a major feature during the quarter. This has created a great diaspora of pricing levels for notebook vendors and shows vendors are beginning to define their roles in the market,” said Michael Sager, IDC Senior Analyst for PC Hardware.
Sager says that while the vendor rankings remained relatively unchanged, there were major movements in market share.
HP had a stellar quarter, he said, reporting a 19 per cent share of the market, while Dell grew its share to finish second with 14.5 per cent of the market.
Acer continued its long march with what Sager described as a “phenomenal quarter” growing well in the commercial and consumer segments and finishing with 12.6 per cent of the overall market.
Meanwhile Lenovo, in fourth place, turned in a 7 per cent share particularly off the back of desktop sales.
Selling desktops is not the only way to get into the top five however, “Toshiba had a very robust performance in the second quarter and grew its presence in the notebook market, finishing with 5.4% of the total market,” said Sager.
With Apple in sixth spot and Optima in seventh thanks to success in the consumer and education markets, just about the whole industry did well.
There were a couple of minor exceptions to this, said Sager – Samsung and the whitebook market which were probably impacted by the introduction of a new sub-$1000 price point for notebooks.

Top 7 Vendors by  Market Share (Desktop and Notebook)

HP

19.2%

Dell

14.5%

Acer

12.6%

Lenovo

7.4%

Toshiba

5.4%

Apple

3.8%

Optima

2.5%

Others

34.6%

Total

100.0%