Dell tops HP as the largest PC supplier in the U.S.
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Dell&#39;s retail strategy to distribute PCs is starting to show results, helping extend its lead over Hewlett-Packard as the largest U.S. PC vendor in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to figures from analyst firms Gartner and IDC.However,&#160;HP remained the world&#39;s largest PC dealer, topping Dell, Acer, and Lenovo, according to figures from both firms.Dell shipped 5.5 million units in the U.S., a 15.2 percent year-over-year increase and a 29.6 percent market share, according to IDC. HP, in second place, shipped 4.5 million units, a 9.8 percent year-over-year increase and a 24.3 percent market share. Acer, in third place, showed tremendous growth in the U.S., with shipments increasing 294.2 percent to 1.5 million units. Apple&#39;s shipments grew 30.9 percent to 1.06 million, a 5.7 percent market share. Toshiba was in fifth place, IDC said.Gartner reported that Dell shipped 5.35 million units, with a 31.4 percent market share during the fourth quarter, compared to the 29.3 percent market share it had last year. HP shipped 4.4 million units, with market share growing to 26.1 percent from 25.5 percent last year. Acer and Apple were in third and fourth places, respectively.Dell&#39;s switch from a direct sales model to&#160;selling PCs through retailers like Best Buy&#160;and&#160;Wal-Mart&#160;is paying off and has helped the company improve shipments, said David Daoud, an analyst with IDC. &quot;They&#39;re coming out of nowhere to everywhere,&quot; Daoud said.However, Dell is trying to catch up internationally with HP, which is investing more in distribution channels and understands business behavior in emerging markets better, Daoud said.According to IDC, HP shipped 14.7 million units worldwide, a 23.3 percent year-over-year growth and a 19 percent market share. Dell was in second place, shipping 11.3 million units with a 14.6 global market share, a 17.1 percent rise from the previous year. Acer saw a sharp rise, with shipments growing 60.3 percent year-over-year to 7.4 million. Lenovo came in fourth, shipping 5.8 million units, a 22.3 percent year-over-year increase. Toshiba was in fifth place.The&#160;acquisitions of Packard Bell and Gateway&#160;last year helped boost Acer&#39;s shipment volumes globally, though the companies have not yet fully contributed. &quot;Given the acquisitions are relatively recent, it will takes years or more to see tangible results,&quot; Daoud said.Acer&#39;s acquisitions have taken a bite out of Lenovo, which saw slower growth in the global market and is struggling to retain its core audience of business users, Daoud said. With the launch of the IdeaPad notebook, Lenovo is trying to expand to the mass consumer market, which has alienated its traditional business users. Lenovo needs to reassert its commitment to business customers, Daoud said.Lenovo also needs to acquire PC vendors if it wants to expand the way Acer did, although there are not many major PC vendors left for it to acquire, Daoud said.The surveys include shipments of desktops, notebooks, and ultraportable notebooks with up to 7-inch screens.
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After eight years at the company, Kevin Rollins was appointed president and CEO of the $41.4 billion computer juggernaut Dell Computer last July. Many still think of Dell as a desktop supplier, but the company has become a powerhouse in server and notebooks as well and is making strong moves in the printer and storage markets.
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By Eric Auchard NEW YORK  - Dell Inc.  plans to open a third U.S. manufacturing plant, the world's largest personal computer maker, said on Tuesday, in a rare example of a high-tech company expanding U.S. production.
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Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) has been chosen under the Army's Desktop Mobile Computing (ADMC-2) contract to provide desktop and notebook computers, displays, printers and peripherals for three years.
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Hewlett-Packard surged ahead in the PC market last year a new report confirms.
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The computer maker is pulling further ahead of second-place rival Hewlett-Packard, according to new third-quarter shipment figures.
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DALLAS -- Dell Inc. said its profit surged 25 percent in the third quarter as the world's largest personal computer maker posted record sales due to rising technology spending in the corporate and government sectors in the United States and abroad.
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The world&#39;s top PC vendor, Hewlett-Packard, beat competitors Dell, Lenovo, and Apple to provide the best online customer support, according to a survey released on Tuesday by The Customer Respect Group.HP was also rated as providing the best online customer service among a sample of 18 technology companies surveyed, ahead of Intuit, Xerox, Microsoft, and Lexmark, according to the survey, which rated online support for the first quarter of 2008.Using metrics, including Web site usability, content accessibility, and responsiveness to queries, the survey independently measured a customer&#39;s interaction with a technology company via the Internet, the company said.Dell lagged in 12th place behind hardware vendors HP, Lenovo, Apple, and Gateway, according to the survey. Dell has a good community site linked from the home page, but the support pages are difficult to locate, said Terry Golesworthy, president of The Customer Respect Group.&quot;I think the story with Dell is that they have excellent materials and content, but it is not always as usable by the more naive users,&quot; Golesworthy said. Dell needs to mature support to cater to new users without neglecting the self-service experts, Golesworthy said.Apple&#39;s product offerings are fairly simple compared to Dell&#39;s, and so is its online support, Golesworthy said. Apple provides no chat or e-mail support options and encourages users to contact Apple through stores and by telephone to resolve issues.Apple&#39;s message may be about being simple, but a major glitch could become a big problem as self-help provided by Apple is minimal, Golesworthy said. Apple has plenty of technical articles on its Web site, which could be hard to locate at critical times.While some issues linger, vendors are finding better use of technologies&#160;such as&#160;RSS, online chat, e-mail, forums, and self-support Web content to support novice and expert PC users, the survey said.Technical customers are generally well serviced on location, so companies are looking to provide more basic information to support novice PC users, Golesworthy said. The documentation on some Web sites is being aligned for novice users to first identify a problem, then download the relevant drivers and programs to solve problems.Companies are also adopting more interactive and real-time techniques to provide customer support, the survey said. Online chat is challenging e-mail as a support option, with more than 50 percent of companies surveyed including online chat, an improvement from 30 percent six months ago.Online chat provides quicker response, cuts down on customer support costs, and eliminates user concerns about speaking to support agents with foreign accents, Golesworthy said.Some Web sites had data-intensive home pages that took time to load, but it could become commonplace as companies try to provide better and more interactive support to users, the survey said.Two upcoming technologies -- remote support and intelligent monitoring -- could help improve customer support provided by vendors, Golesworthy said. With remote access, technicians will assume control of a machine from a remote location to fix a problem. Instead of wading through pages of content to diagnose an issue, intelligent monitoring will provide a clearer choice for users to diagnose and resolve issues.Sun was rated as having the simplest Web site, followed by Xerox, Microsoft, and Apple. Intuit was rated as being most responsive to customers&#39; problems, followed by Microsoft, Symantec, and HP.
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Dell Inc. (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to open a third US manufacturing plant, the world&#39;s largest personal computer maker, said on Tuesday, in a rare example of a high-tech company expanding US production.
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HP has passed IBM in the number of supercomputers in operation and enjoys the largest market share.
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Customer satisfaction with home computers reaches three-year peak, with highest marks for Apple and Dell, survey says.
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Dell Inc., the largest personal-computer maker, has reported third-quarter profit jumped 25 percent as US business customers boosted spending on PCs and demand from foreign
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Dell ended the year on a positive note, beating HP to top the market.
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Hewlett-Packard Co , the  world's largest personal-computer maker, on Tuesday reported a  higher quarterly profit as it sold more PCs and server  computers.
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Dell Inc. DELL.O, the No. 1 personal  computer maker and the best customer of leading computer chip  maker Intel INTC.O, is mulling using rival chips from AMD  AMD.N, its chief executive said on Thursday.
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Dell Inc. announced a deal Monday with China's largest electronics retailer to sell computers in stores throughout the country as the world's second-largest computer maker tries to expand in the booming Chinese market.
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Says new research shows that it remains the top server computer vendor. But HP trumpets leadership in "high growth" segments.