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By John McCormick
Worldwide PC shipments last year increased 14.3% over 2006, said market research IDC, with buyers taking home some 269 million machines.
Hewlett-Packard took the top spot, shipping 50.5 million units. Dell was second in shipments, with 40 million, followed by Acer, with 21.2 million units shipped—which excluded the Gateway line the company acquired.
"Fourth quarter results show a very healthy PC market," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, in a statement. "There is a lot happening with vendors repositioning their channels and going after new markets while falling prices and portable adoption continue to drive volume."
Worldwide shipment increase 15.5% in the fourth quarter.
Despite the fact that the year ended strong, Loverde said, "projections for the next couple years anticipate slower growth. Rising concerns about economic growth are likely to reduce expectations further, although we're still likely to see double digit growth through 2008 and probably 2009."
| The World's Top 5 PC Vendors (unit shipments are in thousands) |
| Vendor |
Market Share |
Units Shipped |
| HP |
18.8% |
50,526 |
| Dell |
14.9% |
39,094 |
| Acer* |
7.9% |
21,206 |
| Lenovo |
7.5% |
20,224 |
| Toshiba |
4.1% |
10,936 |
* Acer merged with Gateway. Including Gateway shipments, Acer had a 9.1% share of the market with 24,569,000 units shipped.
Source: IDC |
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