Compaq beats rest to top of PC sales market

By ADAM GIFFORD

The return of corporate buyers to the computer market and strong mobile sales has put Compaq back into the lead for overall PC sales.

International Data Corporation (IDC) said that for the quarter ended June 30, Hewlett-Packard, which narrowly pipped Compaq for the overall lead in the first quarter, continued to shine in the desktop PC market.

It accounted for 19.5 per cent of the 68,138 desktops sold, up in volume terms but down 1 per cent on the previous quarter.

Hewlett-Packard has built a solid base in the small business and home markets with its Pavilion line of PCs, which are sold through chains such as Noel Leeming's, Harvey Norman and Bond and Bond. It also has some large corporate customers.

Year-on-year growth for the total PC market was only 2.5 per cent, from 80,850 to 82,837 desktop and mobile computers and Intel servers.

"Compaq sold more overall, not through bad performance on HP's part but because the corporate customer, especially at the higher end, returned to the market. That was in Compaq's favour," said IDC analyst Mark Cribbens.

Compaq sold 15,165 units in all categories, giving it 18.3 per cent overall market share, compared with 16.6 per cent in the March quarter.

Corporate sales in the first quarter were slow because many businesses replaced their computers in anticipation of the Y2K rollover, which accounted for the strong sales last year when Compaq had 19.5 per cent of all sales.

Compaq was the clear leader in the Intel server market, with 48 per cent share or 1071 units, up from 646 the previous quarter and 969 in the June quarter last year.

It also scored a strong second in mobile PCs behind mobile computer specialist Toshiba, which sold 4419 units (35.4 share), 380 less than in the first quarter.

The mobile PC market grew 14.3 per cent over the year.

"The gap between Toshiba and Compaq is closing because Compaq has become more aggressive in mobiles," Mr Cribbens said.

Acer and Dell were well behind the top two in mobile sales, with Apple fifth.

In other categories Dell and IBM filled third and fourth slots.