Hewlett-Packard tops Dell in Q1 PC shipments in ths U.S.

Posted Apr 17th 2009 5:30PM by Brian White
Filed under: Competitive Strategy, Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)

Although Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) has lost the top spot for global PC sales to its rival Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) for a few years now, the company has kept the top spot in the U.S. That is, until now.

Hewlett-Packard outpaced Dell in the first quarter of the year based on increased consumer spending in the PC segment in the U.S. This was due to hotter-than-hot price competition as well as the red-hot segment of PC sales from the netbook category. Even in a recession, PC price drops and an unexpected new category are causing sales to increase.

HP's U.S. market share in PC sales rose to 27.6%, ahead of Dell's 26.3%. Dell, which is continuing to fine-tune its consumer PC business after entering the retail field in 2007, is being to reactionary. HP is pushing out nice designs at great price points more frequently than its small competitor, and Taiwan's Acer is a major force in the netbook category where it is taking loads of sales ever single month in the U.S.

Dell is not out for the count, but at this time, it's being pushed around from larger and more aggressive bullies in the PC business. It needs to get tougher. Dell shares haven't pushed the $13 level in the last six months and sit just under $11 this afternoon. They won't go anywhere near the $20 mark unless the company returns to some semblance of proactive innovation.

Tags: Dell, Hewlett-Packard, HP, HPQ, inthenews, PC shipments, U.S. PC sales

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-20-2009 @ 11:03AM

Phil Meyer said...

You came to the right conclusion, but used the wrong data points to get there. Dell's consumer designs have been impressing the tech world -- much more than HP's -- but they can't market, their retail strategy still lacks traction, they waste resources on DOA products like music players and phones and they can't get their manufacturing and customer service to turn around.

The products are hot, but can't sell themselves. Dell doesn't have the strategy, processes or focus needed to sell in a very competitive and economically challenging time.

7-10-2009 @ 4:07AM

Cheap Used Dell Computer said...

this is my first time buying anything from Dell. The new Inspiron XPS arrived 5 weeks ago, and a couple days later, I realized that there were two dead pixels (black spots) on the 17” ultra bright wide screen LCD.