Dell Still Top Dog in PC Sales despite losing ground in 1st Quarter

The European PC market drove up sales for the 1st quarter. Industry leader Dell led the way although their growth dropped below 20% for the first time in 3 years according to a new report from Gartner.

U.S. sales were down but an unexpected rise in the movement of units in Europe helped spark sales in the first quarter of 2005. Even though Dell’s performance was down in the U.S., the strong European market still pushed well above growth percentages of competing manufacturers. Worldwide corporate sale were also a bit weaker than anticipated.

While the growth is in line with Gartner projections, a shortfall in the U.S. market was made up for by stronger-than-expected sales in Europe, said Gartner’s Charles Smulders. “On a worldwide basis, corporate demand was weaker than expected, according to vendors,” he said.

“The market is reasonably healthy in terms of shipments, but revenues have been adversely affected by competitive pricing,” Smulders said.

Other companies also enjoyed strong performances. HP also had better-than-expected sales outside of the U.S.

Apple enjoyed strong sales because of demand for Imac, Power Book and Ipods and notebook style computers enjoy better sales than PCs across the country because of the size and easier wireless access of notebooks.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.