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.

While laptop computers continue to take marketshare from desktop computer systems, the actual shipments of desktops, notebooks, and servers only grew about 10% worldwide last year. That figure includes machines with Intel or AMD processors -- which pretty much covers the entire marketplace for personal computers.

In fact, 239.4 million PCs left factories and were shipped according to research firm Gartner. That's over a quarter of a billion PCs last year, even as pundits continue to predict the "death of the PC" and have for over six years now. I don't think so. Maybe the prediction should have been "death of profits" instead.

What has happened is that the industry is seeing flat revenues even as shipments continue to grow. This means that the pricing of PCs is falling faster than the shipment growth is happening -- more or less, anyway. If you ship more product and earn the same amount, it's pretty clear that pricing declines are chewing into your business. If this continues to happen rapidly, will the market see a disdain for the computer makers in the industry like Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL)? Revenue remained flat at $201.1 billion last year.

According to Gartner, PC shipments will go up by 9.9% in 2007, but revenue will only climb to $201.3 billion.

Dell has recently suffered laggard sales, a new odd-choice CFO, and accounting scandals. Global competitor Hewlett-Packard has had its own share of problems this year with the pretexting scandal that is still underway.

2007 is seen by many as the year in which laptop PC shipments will overtake desktop PC shipments in total sales worldwide. With laptop systems becoming more than enough for most home and business users, and having the ultimate in portability, this is no surprise and it was just a matter of time before this happened. There will always be a need for high-power desktop workstations -- just not for the normal consumer and business user.

With that said, the model Dell still clings to -- custom-building PCs once ordered -- will have its test next year as more and more laptops sell. HP and others seem to have figured out how to compete with Dell on a cost basis that matches the savings Dell sees by turning inventory fast and by selling direct. How this is, I don't know.

But this I do know : the resurgence in retail PC sales (and laptop sales) will not favor Dell a bit since it only sells direct. Combine that with its hard-to-comprehend custom laptop build process for new laptop PC orders against the competition having models in store shelves today, makes me wonder if Dell will be changing its manufacturing business model soon. Yes, it is one that has worked for the better part of two decades. Times change, though.