Dell fortifies market share lead in PCs, research finds

Monday, July 24th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Dell Computer Corp. increased its market share at the expense of Compaq Computer Corp. in second-quarter sales of personal computers in the United States, according to research expected to be released Monday.

"Dell enjoyed the pickup in corporate demand as it continued to march forward with its business-to-business, e-commerce strategy," said Gabrielle Griffith, senior analyst of International Data Corp.'s U.S. personal computer tracking unit.

Dell took the U.S. lead from Compaq in the third quarter of last year.

However, computer sales in the United States lagged by half the worldwide market, where Compaq kept its lead. The U.S. market expanded a modest 7.2 percent over the year-ago quarter.

Strong demand in Asia boosted worldwide unit growth 14.5 percent, said IDC, the market research firm based in Framingham, Mass.

Computer makers focused their strategies on building "outside-the-box" revenues, Ms. Griffith said. Sales of traditional PCs, however, were not constrained by fears of component supply problems expressed by some analysts earlier in the year.

In the United States, Dell shipped 2,290 units for a 19.6 percent market share in the second quarter of the year, which compares with 1,809 units shipped and a 16.6 percent market share for the second quarter last year.

Dell's performance gave the Round Rock, Texas, company a 26.6 percent growth rate in units shipped year-over-year, compared with a decline in units shipped for Houston-based Compaq of 5.6 percent.

Compaq's U.S. market share fell to 14.5 percent compared with 16.5 percent for the year-earlier quarter. Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and IBM Corp. were ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively in the U.S. market.

Following Compaq and Dell in the global market were Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Fujitsu Siemens.