HP Tops Notebook Market; Acer, Lenovo, Sony, Asus show....

[ryengineer]

Saw this news, thought could be worth sharing.

I think Lenovo made a very smart move by offering notebooks in CircuitCity earlier this year, this will definitely help boost up it's market a little bit more.

HP Tops Notebook Market; Acer, Lenovo, Sony, Asus show Strong Growth

Display market research and consulting firm DisplaySearch has reported that the notebook PC market grew 27.7 per cent year-over-year (Y/Y) to 78.802 million units, surpassing early 2006 forecasts by 1.1 per cent.

According to the Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report, HP held the top spot with 20 per cent market share, and just under 4.7 million units shipped. Although Dell’s share dropped slightly, it still remained in second spot with 3.5 million units shipped and 15 per cent market share. Meanwhile, Acer is hot on Dell’s tail, having grown a whopping 29 per cent to 3.1 million units shipped, and snagging 13.3 per cent market share. Toshiba grabbed the fourth spot, with five per cent growth to 2.3 million units shipped and 9.8 per cent market share.

Lenovo also had a strong fourth quarter, growing 18 per cent to ship slightly less than 2 million notebooks, and securing 8.4 per cent of the market. Following Lenovo was Fujitsu-Siemens with 5.3 per cent share having dropped 7 per cent to 1.2 million units. Although not tops in market share, both Sony (5 per cent share) and Asus (4.4 per cent) showed tremendous growth: Sony at 40 per cent to reach 1.2 million units; and Asus at 49 per cent to 1 million units shipped. Apple’s share dropped 7 per cent to 1 million unit shipped, and 4.1 per cent share of the market. The share of all other brands grew 11 per cent to 14.5 per cent, accounting for 3.1 million units shipped.

Dell maintained its lead over HP in North America, although the share advantage fell from over 6 per cent in Q3 2006 to 4 per cent in Q4 2006. HP led in APAC, Latin America, and EMEA.

"With an increasing number of PC buyers choosing notebooks for their first PC, and existing PC owners upgrading to notebooks from desktop PCs, a strong retail strategy is critical for success,” advised John Jacobs, Director of Notebook Market Research at DisplaySearch. “Indicators of aggressive retail strategies for notebook PCs could easily be seen in the quantity and variety of Black Friday advertisements for notebook PCs in 2006 compared to 2005. Brands that had the most success in 2006 also had a wide range of product offerings during the holiday season, from entry-level to top-of-the-line systems, and often bundled these systems with printers and occasionally flat panel monitors.

“Brands that were hungry for market share were quick to drop the street price premium, even running ‘free upgrade’ promotions encouraging customers to make the transition,” Jacobs added. “Additionally, brands with a heavier reliance on the enterprise market faced the additional hurdle of convincing IT managers to embrace wide products and support additional configurations. “

DisplaySearch expects the notebook PC market to continue to surge to Q4 2007, growing to almost 97 million units.

Here’s the breakdown:

HP: 4.7 million units in Q4 over 3.6 million in Q3 for 29 percent growth.

Dell: 3.5 million in Q4 over 3.6 million for a two percent loss.

Acer: 3.5 million in Q4 over 2.4 million in Q3 for 29 percent growth.

Toshiba: 2.3 million in Q4 over 2.2 million in Q3 for five percent growth.

Lenovo: 2 million in Q4 over 1.7 million in Q3 for 18 percent growth.

Fujitsu-Siemens: 1.2 million in Q4 over 1.3 million in Q3 for seven percent loss.

Sony: 1.2 million in Q4 over .8 million in Q3 for 40 percent growth.

Asus: 1 million in Q4 over .7 million in Q3 for 49 percent growth.

Apple: 1 million in Q4, 1 million in Q3.