Lenovo Passes HP in Global PC Share

Not much more could go wrong for Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ). Its shares are at multiyear lows. Its new CEO and savior Meg Whitman says it will be dozens of quarters before the company recovers, which means it may never at all. HP has permanently fallen from the high end of the public corporation tech sector where it once sat with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) and Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC).

Gartner released a report in which its authors show that HP’s multiyear reign in global PC market share is over.

The firm’s report on Q3:

Lenovo took the No. 1 position in worldwide PC shipments for the first time in the company’s history, as its share increased to 15.7 percent, while HP’s global PC share was at 15.5 percent  In addition to acquiring other vendors, Lenovo has also taken an aggressive position on pricing, especially in the professional market. As a result, Lenovo has achieved significant market share gains over the last two years, exceeding regional average growth rates across all regions.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 87.5 million units in the third quarter of 2012, a decline of 8.3 percent compared with the third quarter of 2011.

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q12 (Units)

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad. Source: Gartner (October 2012)