Global PC Sales: HP Rolls, Dell Leaks Oil

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Dell Corporation (NASDAQ:DELL) is still having trouble in its race for global PC market share. Its number for the first quarter of 2010 was 13.3%. Taiwan manufacturer Acer had a worldwide share of 13.6% for the same quarter. Hewlett-Packard Corporation (NYSE: HPQ) continues its dominance in the industry and posted a market share of 19.7%. Total PC sales for the quarter jumped a remarkable 24% compared to the first quarter of 2009.

“The strong first quarter builds on the fourth-quarter rebound and shows rising confidence in the PC supply chain and commercial client base along with persistent demand from consumers,” said Loren Loverde, vice president of IDC Trackers, said in the report quoted by MarketWatch.

One theory about the rebound is that sales of Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 7 combined with a better business environment to create the surge.

Dell has caught up to its completion in most customer satisfaction surveys like those conducted by Consumer Reports and the American Customer Satisfaction Survey. These improved ratings have not turned into better sales.

Dell’s shares have lagged both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones US Computer Hardware Index from 2005 though early 2010. A  Dell share bought for $100 in 2005 was worth $34.10 on January 29th, 2010. The same $100 invested in the Dow Jones US Computer Hardware Index grew to a value of $152.10 over the same period.

Dell’s revenue peaked at $61.1 billion in its 2008 fiscal year which ended February 1, 2008 . The company had net income of $2.9 billion that year. In the fiscal year ending January 29, 2010, Dell’s revenue fell to $52.9 billion and net income dropped to $1.4 billion.

Dell management has elected to just mail it in.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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