Notebooks lift US shipments 15 pc

Third quarter US surveys of PC shipments indicate PC sales rose about 16 percent, due to a hike in notebook sales.

Research firms Gartner and IDC claimed that worldwide PC shipments increased this quarter by 14 percent and 16 percent respectively -- a slight disparity due to different polling techniques. In the US alone, Gartner said PC shipments grew 19.1 percent, and IDC said they grew 16.1 percent.

Pundits speculated that the PC marketplace has pulled out of its three-year sales doldrums and could perform well in the upcoming holiday season.

Also, Gartner and IDC noted separately that HP appeared to be closing the gap with Dell in PC shipments, a result the research firms believe is due to HP's 'aggressive' price-cuts in consumer PCs. Gartner claimed HP now has 15.1 percent of the market versus Dell's 15.3 percent.

Most major PC players lifted their sales of consumer laptops in particular in the US. Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tracker, said the research firm was seeing 'phenomenal growth in portables'.

'Consumers in particular have reacted to low prices and wireless features. Although commercial spending remains cautious, even this segment is making some progress,' she said.

IDC also noted that laptop sales in Europe grew 51 percent this quarter, also helped by price-cutting. However, lower prices squeezed vendor profits.

Increased US government spending contributed to the third quarter boost there. Some business growth in the market is expected, although IDC doesn't expect it to match consumer retail figures.

US retailers welcomed the news. Trade organisation the National Retail Federation predicted a holiday sales hike of 5.7 percent, nearly three times last year's increase.

IDC also said that Dell's worldwide sales grew 27.9 percent and HP's 28 percent. IBM held onto third place, with 5.9 percent market share. The quarter was IBM's fourth consecutive quarter of growth worldwide.