HP holds lion's share as sales roar

By PETER GRIFFIN

PC makers profited from a bumper buying spree in the three months to June 30, according to analyst group IDC, but whitebox manufacturers (New Zealand makers) suffered as aggressive deals from the multinationals won back market share.

The PC market grew more than 30 per cent, year on year in the second quarter as analysts around the world pointed to revived growth in PC sales not seen since 2000.

About 123,400 units were sold in total.

Consumers everywhere are benefiting from strong price competition among vendors, attractive credit deals and the falling prices of laptops.

IDC said the British market managed growth in the second quarter of 15.7 per cent while the United States market boasted 8.1 per cent, reasonable growth for mature markets but far behind that experienced locally.

Globally, about 33 million computers were sold in the second quarter, up nearly 8 per cent on last year and bettering IDC's forecast of 4 per cent growth.

Locally, Hewlett Packard continues to hold the lion's share of the PC market with 39.3 per cent of unit sales. It leads in desktop, laptop and Intel server sales, followed by IBM in second place, Dell, Toshiba and Acer.

The results see the absence of a ranking for the The PC Company, the country's largest white box manufacturer, which held second place in the desktop market in the second quarter last year.

It has requested that it no longer be counted as a separate entity, but its sales be included with other smaller manufacturers.

Earlier this year, the company experienced lower sales than it had forecast and closed some regional stores.

The PC Company and the smaller white box vendors took hits as multinationals matched their low-priced bundled deals.

HP's managing director, Russell Hewitt, said the result for his company overall was pleasing because there were no big contract wins propping up the numbers.

Server sales to production company Weta Digital boosted IBM's performance in that segment, but HP held more than 46 per cent of the market with no single major deal.

"There was only one deal there that was more than a dozen units," said Hewitt.

But IDC's senior hardware analyst, Sonja Olsson, said big wins in the corporate market had propelled sales overall.

"There were a number of large wins for the multinationals, IBM in particular."

HP and Acer had done well in the consumer market.

"Competitive pricing from the two of them really did drive consumer spending," said Olsson.

Acer, which holds fourth place in the laptop market, claims it grew sales by more than 160 per cent in the first half of the year.

Much of Acer's growth has come in the laptop market which has grown nearly 80 per cent in the year, with HP claiming 40 per cent of sales.

Overall, the figures see an increase in value for the PC market in the second quarter with increased unit shipments making up for falling prices.

In the first three months of the year the market was worth $248.3 million.

Traditionally a strong period of the year for sales, IDC said it was unlikely that second quarter growth would continue throughout the year. In the second quarter last year there was only 10 per cent growth.

Back then, the PC Company was in second place in the desktop market with 7000 PCs sold. If the figures show anything, it is that PC manufacturers are riding high on an unexpected growth spurt.