In a still-tepid personal computer market, Dell Computer Corp. reclaimed the top sales spot in the first quarter, but progress by Toshiba signaled that 2003 may prove to be the year of the notebook.
Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, reclaimed the sales lead from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co., according to figures released Thursday by research firms IDC and Gartner Dataquest. Dell and HP have been trading places in the top spot over the past year.
Dell's ties to business customers proved more resilient than HP's consumer base in the first three months of 2002, a quarter that generally favors the corporate market. Research firm IDC reported that Dell's worldwide sales grew 24.7 percent to 5,989,000, and its market share improved from 14.2 percent to 17.3 percent.
IDC had HP's share at 15.8 percent, below the combined 17.1 percent share of Compaq and HP before last year's merger.
IBM and Fujitsu Siemens were third and fourth, respectively, in IDC's rankings. Toshiba, which sells notebook computers almost exclusively, broke the top five for the first time. Specific sales figures on notebooks aren't yet available, but IDC analyst Roger Kay called Toshiba's 15.6 percent growth the biggest news in the latest figures.
News source: Newsday - Dell Reclaims PC Sales Lead
