PC Sales Fall, Mac Sales Rise in the US (HPQ, DELL, AAPL)
Fourth quarter sales of desktop computers in the US fell by nearly -6% year-over-year according to the latest estimate from Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT). US sales were weak for leading vendors Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), down -26% and Dell…
Fourth quarter sales of desktop computers in the US fell by nearly -6% year-over-year according to the latest estimate from Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT). US sales were weak for leading vendors Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), down -26% and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), down -4.5%. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) posted a sharp gain in US sales — up more than 20% year-over-year. Sales figures do not include tablets like Apple’s iPad.
Globally, Gartner reports that unit sales fell by -1.4%, from 93.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 92.2 million units last quarter. Dell’s sales rose 7.8% globally, trailing Lenovo and Asus, both of which posted gains of more than 20%. HP’s sales were off -16% and Acer’s sales were down -18.4%. Apple is lumped with ‘others’ in global sales estimates.
For the full year, Gartner estimates that sales grew by about 0.5%, from a total of 350.9 million units in 2010 to 352.8 million.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
