So let’s look at the latest figures from IDC, the market research firm, and we see that the market is-yes!-still healthy, even growing.
However, that’s not the case with the handheld market. IDC reported that the worldwide PC market grew by nearly 11.9 percent during the third quarter of 2004. Much of the growth was driven by commercial sales in a stronger economy, and there were strong showings in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. The analysts, however, noted that more consumer business would be nice, and the Asia could stand to see some more growth.
Dell ahead
All the major vendors saw year-over-year growth in their sales, but Dell, the market leader, saw the strongest growth. Dell had 18.2 percent of the market, selling a little more than eight million machines in the third quarter. That figure represented a 20.7 percent improvement over its sales in the third quarter of 2003. Growth in its portable and international markets was particularly good.
This level of growth pulled Dell well ahead of Hewlett Packard, which remained in second place 16.2 percent of the market, representing sales of 7.151 million units. Last year it had 16.6 percent of the market, but its quarterly growth of 9.1 percent was not enough to keep up with the market. It was particularly hurt by low sales growth in the U.S.
Enjoying 16.4 percent growth was IBM, although that figure still left it deep in third place, with six percent of the market. About 46 percent of its 2.6 million shipments were said to be portables.
Sales growth at Fujitsu Siemens, which reached 1.73 million units, was roughly in line with the market in its core regions of Europe and Japan. Growth was just enough to keep it in fourth place, with 3.9 percent of the market. Fifth-place Toshiba saw sales growth of 16.4 percent, which was enough to raise it from 3.5 percent of the market to 3.6.
PDA’s over voor palmOne? Not for Mitac
The “Other” category, meanwhile, had 52 percent of the market. Notables here included struggling Gateway, which enjoyed growth a little better than that of the market, but was still down from last year’s figures as it rebounded from merging with eMachines. Acer did well outside the U.S., but lost ground inside the U.S.
IDC’s figures referred to desktops, notebooks, ultra-light notebooks, and X86 servers-but not handhelds.
But speaking of handhelds, the worldwide market for those devices saw its third successive quarter of year-over-year decline in the third quarter of 2004, with sales of 2.1 million units. The year-over-year decline from 2003 was 8.7 percent, and the sequential decline compared to the second quarter was 4.6 percent.
Is the fad for these things over? IDC blamed the decline on consolidation and competition and that fact other ‘converged devices’ (smart phones and pagers) offer much the same PIM (personal information management) functions. Also, any electronics corporation with certain basic manufacturing skills can make and market handhelds, as witnessed by Mitac, a newcomer whose sales grew 210 percent from the previous quarter and 1,007.9 percent year-over-year to become the fourth-ranked vendor, with 3.2 percent of the market.
PalmOne, the market leader with 34.7 percent of the market, saw sales decline 12.7 percent year-over-year and 20.3 percent sequentially. No reason for palmOne’s distress was given, but the firm typically does best during the Christmas season. Hewlett Packard saw strong growth and almost caught up with palmOne. Dell also saw healthy growth but remained in third position, with 8.9 percent of the market. Sony and Toshiba, meanwhile, have pulled out of the international market, although Sony had enough momentum to remain in fifth place with 2.1 percent of the market.
So anyway, if you are selling PCs, things are looking up. If you are selling handhelds, you might want to look for something else.
Lamont Wood