Computer Industry Grew 15% in 1998

The personal computer industry grew 15% in 1998, with the U.S. and Europe accounting for 65% of the 90 million PC shipments last year, according to San Jose-based market research firm Dataquest. “Both the U.S. and Europe continue to have great economies,” said Bill Schaub, Dataquest’s vice president of personal computing. “Even with the problems in Asia, we’ve been able to sustain this growth. There’s just an insatiable desire to have these things.” The Internet spurred much of the demand, said Schaub, who expects the world market to sustain the same rate of growth this year. Compaq Computer Corp. continued to lead sales with 12.8 million shipments, nearly 14% of the market. IBM Corp., the second-largest distributor, shipped 7.6 million computers, while Dell Computer Corp. closed the gap with 7.4 million shipments, a 65% increase over 1997. Despite the popularity of its iMac, Apple Computer Inc. trailed Hewlett-Packard Co. and Packard Bell NEC Inc. with 3 million shipments.