Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 19, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Demand from private consumers in particular is driving sales figures upward. With above-average growth, the US group Hewlett-Packard (HP) maintained its position as the leading manufacturer. According to Gartner, 68.5 million devices were sold from July to September. That was an increase of 14.4 percent, the analysts in Stamford (US state of Connecticut) reported.
Competitor IDC determined growth of 15.5 percent to 66.9 million PCs, as the company in Framingham (Massachusetts) announced. «The popularity of mobile PCs continues to drive growth,» said Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. This affects all regions of the world. Thus, for the first time, more notebooks than desktop computers were sold in the USA. In the Latin America region, sales of mobile devices grew by 90 percent according to Gartner, though from a comparatively low level. This trend would continue, said IDC analyst Loren Loverde. «Falling costs, aggressive competition between sellers and growing spending on the part of companies will enable high growth in the next few years.» Moreover, market penetration in the emerging countries has so far still been low.
In worldwide comparison, China and India as well as the Latin America region stood out. In the EMEA economic area, which comprises Europe, the Middle East and Africa, PC manufacturers sold 22.1 million computers, Gartner reported (up 16.4 percent). The manufacturers’ ranking has remained the same: HP expanded its market share further; according to Gartner, the group sold 12.8 million devices in the third quarter. This corresponds to a market share of 18.8 percent. Dell was able to stop the negative trend of recent months and sold just under 10 million devices (14.4 percent market share). Acer and Lenovo each sold around 5.5 million computers.
