A dispute over who is the world’s top PC Company has broken out between the US owned Hewlett-Packard and Chinese Company Lenovo who does not compete in the consumer PC market in Australia.Hewlett Packard has claimed recent research from Gartner, who had for the first time awarded Lenovo the top gong for being the world’s top PC shipper, was wrong.
Earlier this week research group Gartner delivered their third-quarter worldwide PC shipment report that placed Lenovo at the top, displacing HP.
Gartner’s main competitor, the IDC, had HP holding onto the top spot by the thinnest of margins.
Shortly after the Gartner report appeared HP issued the following statement “While there are a variety of PC share reports in the market, some don’t measure the market in its entirety. The IDC analysis includes the very important workstation segment and therefore is more comprehensive. In that IDC report, HP occupies the No. 1 position in PCs.”
US trade magazine TWICE claimed in the third quarter Gartner reported Lenovo had 15.7 percent of the worldwide market, shipping 13.8 million units.
HP came in with 15.5 percent of the market on 13.55 million units shipped. During the same period in 2011, HP had shipped 16.2 million units for a 17 percent market share, while Lenovo had just 13.1 percent on 12.5 million units shipped.
The IDC had HP shipping 13.9 million units for 15.9 percent of the market with Lenovo right behind, shipping 13.8 million units, for 15.7 percent of the market.
In the U.S. market, HP was still the largest computer shipper by a wide margin on both IDC and Gartner reports.
Overall, the PC market declined dramatically during the third quarter. The IDC had shipments decreasing 12.4 percent while Gartner saw a 13.8 percent falloff. HP, Dell, Apple and Acer all shipped fewer units, with Lenovo being the lone bright spot on each report.
“We expected a weak PC market in the lead up to Windows 8 release in the fourth quarter. While the industry has been focused on shaving excess inventory and preparing to launch a new generation of products, consumers have been looking at alternative devices like tablets. In addition, businesses have slowed their refresh cycle as they remain concerned about the broad economic outlook, amid a busy political season,” said David Daoud, research director, personal computing, at IDC.
Gartner’s Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said retailers’ conservative order placement during the quarter helped lead to the decline. Kitagawa said this trend was a direct result of a weaker-than-expected back-to-school selling season.
Gartner’s Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q12 (Units)
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