Posted on: Tuesday, December 2, 2003

Hewlett-Packard reports laptop sales soared over holiday

By Fred Fishkin
Bloomberg News Service

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's biggest personal-computer maker, said retail sales of laptops rose more than 50 percent during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend compared with the same period last year.

Sales of desktop PCs in retail stores increased 15 percent to 20 percent, said Bill DeLacy, vice president of Hewlett-Packard's U.S. consumer sales.

Digital-camera sales rose more than 50 percent, DeLacy said.

"It's very encouraging across the board," DeLacy said.

Retailers including Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have reported higher post-Thanksgiving sales as people jammed shopping malls and stores over the weekend, the traditional start to the holiday-shopping season.

Executives and analysts predict higher holiday sales this year as the economy picks up and consumers become more optimistic.

Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, Calif., has about 50 percent to 60 percent of the market for PCs in U.S. retail stores, DeLacy said.

The company, maker of the Pavilion and Compaq Presario lines, said last month that sales in its PC unit climbed 19 percent in the period ended Oct. 31, led by 53 percent unit growth in notebook PCs.

Consumers are buying laptops because the machines now have wider screens and the ability to wirelessly connect to printers and the Internet, said Alex Gruzen, Hewlett-Packard's vice president of computer notebooks. Some use the laptops to replace desktop PCs, he said.

"It's not being fueled by dramatic price declines year-over-year," Gruzen said. "If anything, across the whole market, the pricing environment has stabilized."

Hewlett-Packard shares rose 10 cents to $21.84 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 26 percent this year.