HP, Dell Lead Worldwide PC Shipments

eWeek: Reports from IDC and Gartner show that HP and Dell continue to lead in the PC market, with 17.4 percent and 12.3 percent of worldwide PC shipments, respectively. Gartner says the market as a whole grew 2.3 percent quarter-over-quarter, less than the 6.7 percent growth the company had predicted.

Most manufacturers shipped fewer PCs in the second quarter of 2011 than they did during the same quarter in 2010. “The U.S. PC market continued to contract in 2Q11, largely as a result of three factors. The first is an ongoing contraction in the netbook market and related inventories. The second is the impact of 2Q10’s difficult-to-sustain 12 percent growth. And third, demand has softened as corporate buyers continue to focus on increasing share of their IT budget in new IT solutions such as cloud and virtualization, and consumer interest shifts to media tablets,” said IDC’s Rajani Singh. “Given the weakness of 2H10, we expect a better market environment in 2H11 with mid-single digit growth rates in the third quarter’s back to school and fourth quarter’s holiday season.”