HP Keeps Top PC Position, Dell Slips to No. 3

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ) has managed to hang on to its number one personal computer market for the third quarter, despite increase competition and the former Chief Executive Officer, Leo Apothekar’s decision to spin off the PC division.

According to reports released by Gartner Inc. and the International Data Corp. on Thursday, HP held a 17.7 percent market share an increase of 0.4 percent in the third quarter of last year.

It was the Asian personal computer manufacturer, Lenovo who was the star of the shipment reports released on Thursday. Lenovo managed to grab the number two position by disturbing IBM off its position. The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Yang Yuanqing said that his company will be making acquisition in the coming quarter in order to keep growing. In 2005 Lenovo purchased the personal computer business of IBM Inc. and gained a huge market share in North American Market.

Yuanqing said that Lenovo is set to become the number one personal computer manufacturer in the next few months and offset HP off its number one position. It was rumored that Lenovo was seeking to acquire HP’s personal computer business, after Apothekar announced the decision to split the unit in order to concentrate towards the services sector. However, Yang declined to comment on any possible HP acquisition attempts. It is now uncertain whether the new Chief Executive Officer of HP will go ahead with the planned split of HP’s personal computer business.

Lenovo completed the acquisition of Medion AG, the German PC manufacturer in the second quarter for $640 million and gained a large market share in Europe. Yang holds an 8 percent stake in Lenovo and is among the biggest shareholders, making his decisions very important for the future of the company.

The overall personal computer shipments grew globally by 3.2 percent to around 91.8 million units. The reported growth was well below the estimated growth in shipments numbers at 5.1 percent. The fall in the shipment numbers is blamed on the fast growth of tablets and smartphones that are pushing computer upgrades to the backseat. Tablets with faster processors and numerous features are making the need of laptops and desktops.

Dell’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Dell said at a conference that the company will ship fewer units, however will make up in the revenue made due to the sale of high end machines that cost more ad have a larger profit.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.