Ng Khai Portal

Unless you were living in the cave, you have heard lots of  talks of economic recession.  Thankfully, worldwide PC shipments  still manage to grow 14.6% to 69.5 million units in the first quarter of 2008.  Other than a  slowdown, there has been lots of talks that people use less computers because they are going towards cell phones, especially smart phones.  Well, that is like saying that camera sales will drop because cell phones have cameras too.  They say the world’s largest camera manufacturer ironically is now Nokia.  But so far, people use their cell phones to take pictures, and to do some computing, but sales of digital cameras and computers still manage well.  Most likely, there are still many things you want to do on a full computer.  Working on a spreadsheet or editing/browsing pictures is still much better on a proper monitor.

HP continues to hold the number 1 market share with 18.6% market share.  Dell is number 2 with 14.8% market share, while Acer is now number 3 at 6.9% market share and Lenovo is fourth with 6.6% market share.  Acer became number 3 most likely by purchasing Gateway which added to their numbers.

Maybe it is not enough to just sell computers which is constantly on price war.  If you recall a few years earlier, IBM has drop the personal computer business by selling it to Lenovo but has managed to grow very well the last few years by focusing on integration, software and services. 

For a while, HP has finally manage to integrate Compaq well, and therefore retains its number 1 position, but it does seem that HP agrees that growth is not on selling more computers, but by integration, software and services too.