Lenovo Passes Dell as the World's No. 2 PC Maker

News
By Douglas Perry
published

Lenovo has become the world's second largest PC maker in the third quarter of this year.

According to IHS, Lenovo shipped 12.5 million units, up 14.5 percent from 10.9 million in the second quarter. HP retained the lead with 16.3 million units, but increased its shipments only 5.9 percent sequentially. Dell had a weak quarter with just 1.3 percent growth to 11.3 million PCs and dropped to third place. Acer, in fourth, was able to increase sequential sales by 6.8 percent to 9.5 million units, but annual growth is still down by almost 21 percent due to a fast decline of netbook sales. In Q3 of 2010, Acer sold 12.0 million PCs.

"Lenovo continues to capitalize on strong demand for PCs in its home market of China," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research for IHS. "While PC sales in the United States, Europe and many other regions are suffering because of weak economic conditions and rising competition from media tablets, desktop and notebook sales remain red hot in China. This is allowing Lenovo to outgrow it U.S. rivals—and putting it in position to contend with HP for market leadership."

While HP said that it will keep its PC business as part of the company, the previous announcement that the company would not be making PCs anymore caused the company to lose some distribution deals in China, IHS said.

Global PC shipments increased to 90.4 million units in the third quarter, IHS estimates. Compared to Q3 last year, unit sales climbed by just 2.6 percent from 88.1 million PCs and are well below IHS's previous forecast of 6.8 percent growth. "While third-quarter PC shipments came in lower than our predictions, the attainment of any growth at all represents a victory for the market," Wilkins said. "This increase in sales comes at a time of weak consumer sales and a strong challenge from alternative platforms—specifically the media tablets. In this environment, all growth is progress."

Douglas Perry
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • sinfulpotato
    Dell has been awfully quite lately. I remember television being littered with Dell ads.
    Reply
  • zybch
    I've liked the Dell notebooks I've had and the desktops I service as part of my job, but they seem to have dropped off the face of the planet recently.
    Reply
  • applefairyboy
    A Lenovo generally has a lower retail price tag for another PC manufacturer with the same hardware. Since this seems to a time of economic woes, it wouldn't surprise me if Lenovo starting gaining ground. It's not like a computer is a T-shirt and contains a logo that provides a perception of social status - computers are defined by function right?
    Reply
  • beayn
    This is why the stock market destroys economies. Selling 90 million PC's is huge, but because it's only a 2.6% increase from last year's 88 million, the greedy share holders are like OMFG I'M OUT THIS MARKET IS BOMBING !

    As a result, companies have to cut corners, rip off their customers, fire full time employees, outsource jobs to 3rd world countries, reduce metal thickness, plastic quality & thickness, reduce warranties, false advertising, attacking competition, patent vague ideas, fib their financial reports etc. ANYTHING they can do to show GROWTH because PROFIT isn't enough for the 1%, it has to be INCREASING profit.

    Personally if I made a few billion dollars, I'd be quite happy making a few billion dollars the following year. I certainly wouldn't get grumpy if it was only 2.6% higher than last year.
    Reply
  • cookoy
    My next notebook will be either a Lenovo or an Asus. I haven't used either, so if anyone out there has a bad experience with either, i'd appreciate letting me know now.
    Reply
  • warmon6
    ..... dont remind me about dell....... have a friends laptop ATM that i was fixing for non functional Vista OS and well as soon as i fixed that, the cpu fan died......
    Reply
  • bin1127
    crap... we sell 400 mln pc's a year? that's a friggin lot of electronics. The sweat from the factories can fill a lake.
    Reply
  • garbage lenovo
    Dell is better quality and is cheaper than garbage Lenovo. Lenovo is a Lenono. I refuse to support a Commie Chinese computer company, the Chinese are already doing a good enough job of buying their own computers.
    Reply
  • garbage lenovo
    Dell is better quality and is cheaper than garbage Lenovo. Lenovo is a Lenono. I refuse to support a Commie Chinese computer company, the Chinese are already doing a good enough job of buying their own computers.
    Reply
  • Northwestern
    garbage lenovoDell is better quality and is cheaper than garbage Lenovo. Lenovo is a Lenono. I refuse to support a Commie Chinese computer company, the Chinese are already doing a good enough job of buying their own computers. TROLL ALERT! The last quality Dell system was rolled out in 2005. After that it all went downhill. The XPS laptop division is cluttered with flaws and breakdowns that Dell will not own up to. Lenovo has admitted and owned up to their design mistakes or flaws. Aside from this they charge MUCH more for servicing. For example, my Dell laptop got a damaging virus last year that I at first, could not fix myself. After half an hour on hold I got mediocre support and an asking price of $150 to remove the virus. I hung up, Installed Malwarebytes and removed the malware.
    Reply