Global PC Sales Plunge in 4th Quarter

Sales of personal computers worldwide slowed sharply in the fourth quarter, but the industry’s second-largest player, Dell Computer Corp., took market share on strong sales growth, two research companies said Friday. Sales grew only 9.2% in the quarter as holiday buying unexpectedly slumped, according to International Data Corp. Competing market research firm Dataquest estimated the growth rate at 10.1%. Dataquest said the slow close to the year dragged the annual growth rate for all of 2000 to 14.5%, down from 23% in 1999. Both firms said Compaq Computer Corp. remained the top PC vendor in unit terms, but posted the slowest growth of the top four companies. Dell gained 2% in market share with 30.9% growth in the fourth quarter, according to IDC. Dataquest said Dell unit sales rose 41%. No.3 Hewlett-Packard grew at just under 19%, both firms said.