Round Rock, Texas-based Dell grabbed the number-one spot with 25.3 million PCs shipped in 2003, giving it 15% of the market and growth of 25.8%. The company overtook Palo Alto, California-based HP, although HP enjoyed growth of 12.3% to ship 24.2 million PCs, giving it 14.3% market share.
The year ended on a high note for HP, however, as it grabbed back the top position from Dell for the fourth quarter thanks to a focus on the US consumer market and success in EMEA. Gartner said that fourth-quarter shipments grew 12% compared to the fourth quarter of 2002.
Dell and HP dominated the worldwide market with a combined 29.3% of the total 168.9 million PCs shipped during the year. The nearest competitor, IBM Corp, shipped only 8.6 million PCs, giving it 5.1% of the market and 8.8% growth.
As usual, the combined other vendors made up the bulk of the PCs shipped worldwide, with 99.4 million shipped by other vendors, up 7.2% on 2002, representing 58.9% of the total.
US shipments slightly outpaced the worldwide market with growth of 12.4% to 57.7 million.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
