Worldwide PC shipments continued their downward slide in the third quarter as the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington exacerbated already weak demand for PCs, according to two quarterly surveys released on Wednesday.
Dell Computer Corp held onto its spot as the No. 1 PC maker, gaining market share from Compaq Computer Corp and other manufacturers of personal computers, research firms Gartner Dataquest and International Data Corp (IDC) said in separate surveys.
PC shipments, which fell year-on-year last quarter for the first time since 1986, declined by more than 10 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the researchers said.
Gartner Dataquest, of San Jose, California, said 30.7 million units shipped during the quarter, an 11.6 percent decrease from the year earlier, while Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC estimated that 29.1 million units shipped, for a 13.7 percent drop in the third quarter.
In addition to the Sept. 11 attacks, IDC pointed to declines in demand in Asia and Europe as contributing to the fall. Europe, the Middle East and Africa are expected to have posted double-digit declines in shipments, Gartner said.
Gartner said it now sees global shipments off 6 percent this year from last, analyst Charles Smulders said.
IDC told clients earlier this month that because of the economic slowdown related to the attacks, it expects a fall of 4.7 percent, analyst Roger Kay said. Last month, IDC said shipments of computers worldwide would decline about 2 percent this year from last.
"Despite the welcome return of something resembling seasonal behavior, the US market is still greatly depressed from year-ago levels and is likely to continue to remain weak for at least several more quarters," Kay said.
Dell, which became the world's No. 1 PC maker in the first quarter, extended its market share lead. According to Gartner, Dell now has 13.8 percent of the market, up from 11 percent a year ago.
Compaq, meanwhile, has 10.4 percent of the market, down from 13.4 percent last year.
Compaq warned early this month that sales had been weak following the attacks and is expected to post a loss of US$0.06 a share, according to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call, when it reports results on Oct. 23.
Dell, by contrast, said sales hadn't been disrupted in September and held to its guidance for its current quarter, which includes the month of October.
Gartner said in addition to the negative impact of Sept. 11, Compaq suffered because of its announced merger with competitor Hewlett-Packard Co.
H-P's market share fell to 6.4 percent from 7.5 percent and had its slowest growth for worldwide shipments since January of 1997, Gartner said.
Gartner said IBM Corp's share of the worldwide PC market fell to 6.6 percent from 7 percent in the year-ago third quarter and that NEC Corp, meanwhile, saw its market share decline to 3.4 percent from 4.2 percent in the year-earlier quarter.
Gateway, which will announce quarterly earnings yesterday, maintained its spot as the No. 4 maker of personal computers in the US, but lost market share. It now has 7.4 percent of the market, down from 9 percent.
IBM, meanwhile, gained market share in the US, despite having stopped retail sales of personal computers 18 months ago. Its share rose to 6.3 percent from 5.5 percent in the year-ago quarter.
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