Gartner: HP Pulling Away From Dell In PC Market Share

Hewlett-Packard continued to build its worldwide market share lead in PCs over rival Dell, and is within a few points of taking first place in U.S. PC market share as well, according to new data released Wednesday.

Gartner Group, Stamford, Conn., said HP maintained a 17.4 percent market share worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2006, compared with 13.9 percent for Dell, 7.1 percent for Lenovo, 6.8 percent for Acer and 3.8 percent for Toshiba.

Dell, which began 2006 with a solid market share lead worldwide over all rivals, saw its PC shipments drop by 8.7 percent during the fourth quarter while HP grew its shipments by 23.9 percent, Gartner said. Dell's travails continue at a time when the company has been working to increase its gross margins, as well as dealing with investigations into its accounting by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP built on its market share lead over Dell from the third quarter, when it maintained a 16.3 percent to 16.1 percent market share advantage worldwide.

Dell ended the third quarter, though, with a market share lead over HP in the U.S., but that lead continues to deteriorate, Gartner found. At the end of 2006, Dell's U.S. market share stood at 29.1 percent compared to 25.3 percent for HP, the consulting group found; when the fourth quarter began Dell's U.S. market share was 32.1 percent to 23 percent for HP.

In the U.S., Gateway, San Diego, maintained its third-place position in market share with 7.1 percent, Toshiba, Irvine, Calif., showed market share of 5.3 percent and Apple, Cupertino, Calif., registered 5.1 percent PC market share during the fourth quarter, according to Gartner.

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