Dell Computer tops world in computer sales

Associated Press

Dell, already the market leader in the United States with a 23 percent share, surpassed Compaq Computer Corp. for worldwide PC market leadership in the first quarter of 2001, according to the report by Gartner Dataquest, a research firm in Stamford, Conn.

Compaq had held the number one position since the early 1990s, when it took the crown from IBM.

Dell had a 12.8 percent share worldwide, compared to Compaq's 12.1 percent share for the quarter. Rounding out the top five: Hewlett-Packard had a 7.3 percent share; IBM had a 6.2 percent share and NEC had a 4.5 percent share.

But the first quarter proved to be a tough one for the entire industry, leading to a 3.5 percent decline in U.S. sales — 11 million units were sold, down from 11.4 million from the year-ago period, the report showed.

HP, with a large part of its revenue tied to the United States, was hardest hit and suffered a 25 percent decline in sales, selling 1.1 million units, down from 1.4 million units sold in the year-ago period.

The PC market already was showing signs of saturation, and the downturn in the economy made the situation worse, said Todd Kort, principal analyst at Gartner Dataquest.

"If the economy would have been healthy, we would have had a positive growth rate" in the United States, he said.

But, the report stated, "market saturation is an issue that is clearly not going to go away and vendors and the industry must look for ways to maintain revenue opportunities."

Dell's worldwide sales in the first quarter reached 4.2 million units, up 34.3 percent from the year-ago period.

By comparison, Compaq increased quarterly sales by only 0.3 percent, shipping 3.9 million PCs worldwide. Hewlett-Packard sales declined by 3.5 percent and NEC declined by .5 percent. IBM's quarterly sales grew by 7 percent.