PC Shipments Up 26% in 2nd Quarter

Fueled by lower-priced PCs and a rush by consumers to get online, worldwide PC shipments grew 26.4% in the second quarter from a year earlier.

A move toward economic recovery in Asia and several Latin American countries also helped boost worldwide PC shipments to 25.3 million units, up from 20 million units in the second quarter of 1998, according to preliminary figures to be released today by GartnerGroup’s Dataquest.

A well-publicized push by several companies to give away PCs to consumers has also driven sales growth of lower-cost PCs, said Charles Smulders, a senior industry analyst at Dataquest.

“We’ve seen significant rebate schemes from various vendors on PCs which are tied to connectivity to the Internet,” Smulders said. “Some rebates are coming from competition from the free PC idea. Start-up companies are looking for renewable or continuable sources of revenues from the PC.”

Due to its ability to control inventory, Dell Computer continued to lead the market, showing 50.3% growth in worldwide shipments for the second quarter from a year earlier. IBM was second with a 47.1% gain, and Hewlett-Packard was third with a 37.7% increase.

In the U.S., IBM led the way, posting a 70.6% gain in shipments over a year ago, followed by Compaq with 51.5% and Dell with 51%. Smulders cautioned that growth rates in the U.S. are higher than actual user demand because shipments in the second quarter of 1998 were relatively small.

“By reducing shipments a year ago, growth rates this quarter look higher because they’re starting from a smaller base,” Smulders said.