HP Tops Global Notebook Sales

DisplaySearch has revealed in its recent release of the Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report that the notebook PC market shrank 6 per cent but was up 35 per cent in Q1’08 to 31-million units and that HP remained number 1 in the notebook PC market for the seventh consecutive quarter, maintaining a lead of almost 2 million units over number 2 vendor Dell.

HP’s share of the market was over 20 per cent for the sixth consecutive quarter. As a result of an increased focus on retail sales and a substantial focus on growing their business in China, Dell grew to 15 per cent share, a mark they last held in Q4’06. However, Dell’s lead over Acer is small, and with Acer’s acquisitions of Gateway and Packard Bell, we can expect to see them put renewed effort on growing those brands.

There has also been a significant shift among the smaller brands. Apple, after four quarters as the number 8 notebook brand, surged to number 7 in Q1’08, while Asus grew to number 8. Most of the other top ten brands have maintained their ranking over the past several quarters, with the exception of Sony. As recently as Q3’07, Sony was number 6; however they slid to number 7 in Q4’07 and now to number 9 in Q1’08.

Although Sony’s notebook shipment volumes have increased by more than 40 per cent in North America, DisplaySearch analysis indicates that their volumes have declined by 27 per cent in EMEA and more than 40 per cent in APAC and Japan. By contrast, Acer, Dell and HP have all grown by 50 per cent or more in EMEA and APAC.

The most popular panel size and resolution continues to be 15.4″ 1280×800, which accounted for almost 50 per cent of all notebook PCs shipped in the quarter. In a distant second position was 14.1″ 1280x?800 with 22 per cent share.
Looking at 2008, DisplaySearch expects notebook PC shipments to continue to grow, with total notebook PC shipments exceeding 135M units for the year.