GartnerGroup's Dataquest Says Worldwide PC Market Topped 21 Percent Growth in 1999; Compaq Held No.1 Position Worldwide; Dell Was No. 1 Vendor in the United States - Industry Trend or Event

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Jan 31, 2000

Despite concerns that the year 2000 bug might slow down personal computer sales, the PC market continued to experience robust growth in 1999, according to preliminary statistics by Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group, Inc. Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 113.5 million units in 1999, an increase of 21.7 percent over 1998 shipments.

"There had been concerns that Y2K shutdowns in large business, government and education segments would slow growth in the market in the second half of 1999, but the numbers indicate it had only limited impact on overall growth in the PC industry," said Charles Smulders, principal analyst for Dataquest's Personal Computers Worldwide program. "Our research shows Y2K impacted the PC industry by slowing market growth by approximately 2 percent in the fourth quarter."

Compaq maintained the No. 1 ranking worldwide with market share above 13 percent. Dell posted the strongest growth rates among the top-tier vendors both worldwide and in the United States with growth rates exceeding 50 percent (see Table 1 and Table 2). Dell moved past Compaq into the No. 1 position in the United States.

Table 1
Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1999
(Thousands of Units)

                   1999 1999 Market      1998 1998 Market Growth
Company       Shipments   Share (%) Shipments   Share (%)    (%)
Compaq           15,035        13.2    12,785        13.7   17.6
Dell             11,123         9.8     7,361         7.9   51.1
IBM               8,932         7.9     7,613         8.2   17.3
Hewlett-Packard   7,242         6.4     5,388         5.8   34.4
Packard Bell NEC
  NEC             5,936         5.2     5,914         6.3    0.4
Gateway           4,638         4.1     3,561         3.8   30.2
Apple             3,821         3.4     3,070         3.3   24.5
Others           56,795        50.0    47,619        51.0   19.2
Total Market    113,521       100.0    93,310       100.0   21.7

Note: Tables are PCs only (desktop, deskside, notebook,
ultraportable, laptop and transportable). Server-marketed PCs
are not included.

Source: Dataquest (January 2000)

Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and Apple also showed double-digit growth rates both worldwide and in the United States. HP's success was driven to a great extent by sales into the home market, where the Pavilion line did extremely well. The launch of new products boosted Apple's growth during the second half of the year. Gateway's growth rate exceeded 30 percent, although the company experienced difficulty with component supply issues during the fourth quarter.

Table 2
Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1999
(Thousands of Units)

                  1999 1999 Market      1998 1998 Market Growth
Company      Shipments   Share (%) Shipments   Share (%)    (%)
Dell             7,017        16.0     4,592        12.7   52.8
Compaq           6,861        15.7     5,815        16.1   18.0
Gateway          3,985         9.1     3,022         8.4   31.9
Hewlett-Packard  3,825         8.7     2,703         7.5   41.5
IBM              3,168         7.2     2,890         8.0    9.6
Apple            1,932         4.4     1,651         4.6   17.0
Others          17,046        38.9    15,387        42.7   10.8
Total Market    43,833       100.0    36,060       100.0   21.6

Note: Tables are PCs only (desktop, deskside, notebook,
ultraportable, laptop and transportable). Server-marketed PCs
are not included.

Source: Dataquest (January 2000)

Looking forward to 2000, Dataquest analysts expect the worldwide and U.S. market growth rates will slow by about four percentage points compared to 1999.

"Much will depend on the industry's success in convincing their customers to replace PCs more frequently," said Mr. Smulders. "Key factors will be the industry's ability to bring smaller, less complex, cheaper products to the business market and industrially designed products to the home."

These results are preliminary at this time. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Dataquest's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program. This program offers a comprehensive and timely picture of the worldwide PC market, allowing product planning, distribution, marketing, and sales organizations to keep abreast of key issues and their future implications around the globe. More information on this program is available on Dataquest's Web site at http://www.dataquest.com/public/static/home/ourservices/scopes/ n02pqrgww.html.

GartnerGroup's Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the high-technology and financial communities with market intelligence for the semiconductor, computer systems and peripherals, communications, document management, software, and services sectors of the global information technology industry. FMI: http://www.gartner.com.