BOSTON (04/24/2000) - Discount PC vendor eMachines Inc. burst into the top tier of computer companies in U.S. sales during the first quarter of this year, which saw robust growth in worldwide PC shipments, according to preliminary figures from two market research firms.
Global PC shipments grew 15 percent for the first quarter of this year compared to a year ago, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc., in preliminary figures released today. Rival researcher International Data Corp.
(IDC) also released preliminary figures for the quarter showing worldwide PC shipments rose 20 percent year over year.
Total unit shipments hit 29.9 million PCs in the first quarter, compared to 26 million units in the year-ago quarter Dataquest found, with IDC reporting 30.4 million, compared to 25.5 million units one year earlier.
Both market researchers pointed to strong demand for PCs in the Asia/Pacific region and Japan, with Dataquest noting particularly heavy growth in Korea, related to government spending designed to push private investments. Latin America also posted a good quarter in PC shipments, according to both Dataquest, based in San Jose, California, and IDC, in Framingham, Massachusetts.
U.S. shipments grew 17 percent year-over-year, with 11.6 million units shipped in the first quarter of this year, IDC said. Consumer demand pushed eMachines into the number five spot among top-tier vendors, with IBM Corp. dropping out of the top five.
However, IBM continues to rank fourth among the top five vendors globally, according to IDC.
In terms of market share, both companies found Compaq Computer Corp. shipped the most units globally for the first quarter, with IDC finding the Houston-based PC maker with 13.1 percent of the market, down slightly from 14.1 percent a year ago, but with overall shipment growth of 12 percent. According to Dataquest figures, Compaq had 12.5 percent of global PC unit shipments, also down slightly from a year ago.
Hewlett-Packard Co. posted the strongest gains globally, in part because of its successful Pavilion line, Dataquest said. HP's growth was 59.9 percent, according to Dataquest, while IDC tagged HP with global growth of 56 percent.
IBM experienced the largest drop, and Dell Computer Corp. also had a shipment growth slow down for the quarter, Dataquest said. Still, Dell continued to make inroads on Compaq's number-one position, Dataquest found.
IDC attributed IBM's lost ground to its decision to withdraw from U.S. retail channels and also noted that PC shipment growth overall was affected somewhat by the year 2000 date change "hiccup."
Dataquest's top worldwide vendors for the quarter were Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM, NEC Corp. and Gateway 2000 Inc. In the U.S., Dataquest's top vendors were Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway, eMachines, Apple Computer Inc. and IBM.
IDC's top five global PC shipment vendors for the quarter were Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM and Fujitsu Siemens Computer BV. In the U.S., the top-tier vendors were Dell, Compaq, HP, Gateway and eMachines.
IDC, in Framingham, Massachusetts, can be reached at +1-508-872-8200 or http://www.idc.com/. Dataquest, in San Jose, California, can be reached at +1-408-468-8009 or http://www.dataquest.com/.