Dell revived, pushing the PC market up

In a report published Jan. 16, research firm IDC said changes in Dell's business strategy in the fourth quarter of 2007 helped the company achieve double-digit growth in line with growth. of the global PC market.

IDC statistics show that Dell's number of PC products sold in the fourth quarter of 2007 increased by 17.1% over the same period last year to 11.3 million products. This figure has helped Dell continue to maintain 14.6% of the global PC market share to continue chasing HP competitors.

Particularly in the US market, the number of products sold by Dell also increased by 15.2% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, HP competitor in the US market only achieved 9.8% growth.

' Dell is beginning to revive strongly after a time of great difficulties ,' IDC said in a recent statement. ' The expansion of retail distribution channels has helped the company to rapidly increase the number of products consumed as well as to overcome some of the disadvantages of competition '.

In 2006 Dell lost its global PC market position to rival HP. The main reason is the change in consumer trends. At that time, the laptop product line became more and more popular. Dell at that time was not very strong in this area.

But Dell's business strategy began to change drastically from about a year ago with the return of founder Michael Dell as chief executive. Michael Dell quickly implemented cost-cutting strategies, expanded retail distribution channels, partnered with Wal-Mart or Staples to build a direct business model .

Positive year of PC market

Michael Dell - Dell CEO.

IDC said that in the fourth quarter of 2007, the global PC market continued to maintain the inherent growth momentum in the third quarter, bringing the overall growth rate to 15.5% with the total number of products consumed 77.4 million pieces. Overall in 2007 the global market consumed a total of 269 million PCs - equivalent to 14.3% growth.

HP continues to maintain its leading position in the global PC market with 19% market share and consumer product growth of 23%. However, HP's product growth rate in the fourth quarter was down by nearly 10% compared to the third quarter. The main reason for HP to fall into this situation is because demand for consumption in some markets such as Europe, Middle East, and Africa is seriously reduced and competition is becoming more and more intense at US market.

The most significant is the influence of Acer after it successfully acquired PC Gateway manufacturer in October 2007. The growth rate of Acer consumer products has increased by more than 60.3% after this acquisition. This helped Acer rise to third place in the market with 9.6% market share pushing Lenovo down to No. 4.

In fact, the growth rate of 15.5% in the fourth quarter is still lower than the previous forecast of IDC. After a spectacular growth push in the third quarter, IDC said that the global PC market in the fourth quarter will have to grow up to 16.7%.

The main reason that the global PC market in the fourth quarter was unable to achieve the expected growth rate is that due to the weakness of the European market plus declining consumer demand is no longer as strong as in the third quarter. .

The future is bleak

Although the global PC market has achieved very good growth, analysts are concerned about the growth trend in the near future of the market. The cause of these concerns is the ongoing economic downturn in the US, plus the unbelievable business results of the world's leading chip processor Intel.

' Positive results in the fourth quarter show that the PC market is developing very well ,' said Loren Loverde, an analyst with IDC. ' However, IDC forecasts that in the next one or two years the growth rate will be slowed by concerns about the economic recession '.

Meanwhile, IDC analyst David Daoud said that the PC industry will quickly overcome difficulties to maintain the pace of development. ' We forecast that in 2008 the PC market will achieve a growth rate of about 12.2%. 2009 may be slightly lower, but it may be sustained at double-digit growth rates . '