Analyst Report Shows HP is Dominating With PC Sales -- Especially Notebooks

HP continues to hand Dell its lunch in terms of shipping PCs globally. The all important notebook segment has become HP's strength and powered the company to 13.1 million PC sales in Q3 2007 -- a 32.7 percent jump from the same quarter in 2006. Meanwhile Dell is slipping further behind HP.

HP Surges with Sales

Overall HP accounted for 19.2 percent of all PCs shipped globally in the third quarter of 2007. During the same period for 2006 HP accounted for 13.8 percent of global shipments, so they have grown their share 32.7 percent in just one year. Popular products such as the HP Pavilion dv6500t, dv2500t and dv9500t with their sleak looks and reasonable price have allowed HP to power ahead. The fact that HP sells in many retail stores, while Dell does not, has allowed them to steal major market share from Dell.

Popular products such as the HP dv6500z are helping HP sell more notebooks (view large image)

Dude, What's Happening to Dell?

Looking at Dell, you can see that they shipped 9.9 million PCs in Q3 of 2007, which is only slightly more than the 9.8 million they shipped in Q3 of 2006. This is basically flat growth.

With Michael Dell now back on board as CEO and a new push for more innovative products such as the XPS M1330, XPS M1530 and soon to be released product updates to their mainstream Inspiron line, the future may look a bit brighter for Dell. They'll have to do something about improving their retail presence to battle HP it seems though. So far Dell has started offering notebooks in Wal Mart, Costco and Staples in a limited manner and we might see more of that in 2008.

Can products like the XPS M1330 save Dell? (view large image)

The Rest of the Story

Outside of Dell and HP, Lenovo had a strong Q3 2007 which left the company in 3rd place globally and the quickly growing Acer was just a hair's length away from Lenovo selling 5.4 million PCs and coming in at #4.

Notebooks Rule, but Desktops Still Selling Well

The notebook segment continued to drive the expansion of the overall PC market, with year-over-year growth of 33.5 percent. However, desktop PC shipments increased at a healthy pace as well, increasing to 39 million, up 3.4 percent from 37.7 million in the third quarter of 2006.

Source: iSuppli

 

Yeah! GO HP!!!!!!

 

Look at the difference in the screens.

 

I still like Dell. I just bought a refurbished laptop from Dell and I love it. Save me tons of money.

 

Thats because the HP is running on battery and looks like the lowest brightness setting while the dell is connected to A/C and looks like max brightness setting.

In any case, HP probably got it right as far as design aspect of the notebook is concerned plus at the right price and place. Dell on the other hand seemed to suffer from plainjane looks on their inspiron lines. If only they had their inspiron based on the XPS design they would have gained more marketshare.

 

Buyer beware!

I purchased a Pavilion dv9014tx notebook last December in Singapore - I work all around the world and wanted a reliable companion to be able to have as an entertainment system when housed in temporary housing - and a communication centre to keep in touch with my family.

Since then I have convinced a number of people to buy HP - now I regret it!

Two months ago - now stationed in Argentina - my primary HDD crashed - and the long and the short of it is that HP told me it has to be replaced.

OK -so I bought a Global warranty - pop round to the authorised HP office in Buenos Aires and get it fixed .

Without going into the details of two months of 'negotiating' with HP - the upshot is that ... HP will not fix it - even though I am prepared to pay for the repair.. they refuse to work on the machine - the US head office refuse to send the part to me - HP Argentina refuse to order the part - the laptop doesn't work - so it is useless - never mind the hours of work I have done - photos etc. I backed up to the secondary drive and an external drive but since I can not boot up now and can't get it fixed I am now in the position of having to buy a new notebook.

HP service will do nothing - I can not contact anyone of higher authority to help - I keep getting promises of 'Total Care' etc etc. i am tired of all this but feel it is my civic duty to warn people - -Th only place HP will repair your laptop is in the country where you bought it.

This negates the purpose of a portable machine - note - my home is Australia, but in the last two years I have lived in Brasil, USA and Argentina - and not been back to Australia - so I need 'Global Warranties' - 'Total Care' etc etc.

Can anyone advise me on the best brand to buy next?

Regards

PS - I have simplified this to not bore you all - anyone wanting the full history can ask - but I assure you it is absolutely mind boggling - visit HP website and read what the CEO has to say - his name is Mr Hurd - but he has not Hurd what his customers want --

 

WOW! That's a big diff! But it's probably just a bad pic of the HP.

 

HP got great looking laptops, as well as powerfeul components like dell, but dell is catching up with xps in terms of design. their inspiron series feel plastic to me when i was looking for a laptop.

my dell inspiron 8200 desktop replacement has lasted me 5 years and its still working fine! p4 512ram 40gb xp windows. i would recommend anyone to get a dell anytime.

all my uncles use HP and its alright also.

 

Just to make a note, just because one brand is selling more than another doesn't necessarily make one a better brand in terms of quality. There are many variables involved with why one brand is selling more than another. Some is of course to do with product quality, but some also to do with how well a company is able to sell to people.

In the end, you have to buy the brand with the product that fits your needs the best.

 

Dell is doing a poor job of that if they sold through Best Buy and Circuit City they would have much much much bigger profits.

 

Its at least partially thanks to the new HP Pavilion look that Dell finally got rid of the white bumpers, otherwise, they would have kept them forever.

And there's no way in heck they could have designed the M1330 or M1530 for that matter, but they probably did with that ugly 17" XPS.
They got someone else to design it, just like their discontinued Latitude X1 was a rebranded Samsung notebook.



4000th POST!!!!!

 

As a Dell fanboy, this makes me sad.

Though if it means more pressure on Dell to get their act together, by all means it's win/win for the consumer.

 

What about corporate sales?

 

i agree with andrew HP has great marketing, everyone has seen their commercials with people doing stuff. youtube hp commercials.
my favorite is with seinfeld and shaun white.

 

I'm almost sure that in corporate sales, Dell still rules the market, though Lenovo should have a pretty decent share of that market as well.

 

Dell needs to get into retail stores such as Best Buy etc (Staples was a start). Ask any college student a large majority will say they picked up their laptop at a big box electronics store. If thats any indication of how people purchase notebooks its no surprise HP is in the lead, they load up box stores with their consumer notebooks.

 

i agree, i think my entire campus uses nothing but dell with the exception of our libraries renting out macbook's which replaced the old dell latitudes.

 

Almost all my friends bought their notebooks through a big box store like Best Buy, Futureshop or Staples (here in Canada). I, too, have bought both of my noteboks through a big box store. I find that their prices are cheaper and go on sale quite often compared to Dell Canada, which rarely offers any coupons like the US.

I agree that Dell needs to get more of their products into the big box stores. My local Wal-Mart carries the 1521 (in selected colours) with mediocre specs for $899.99+tax. The only selling point is the 3 year warranty. I don't think the Dell 1521 in Wal-Mart can compete with a HP series 15" notebook which retails around $699+tax at the big box stores in Canada. Plus big box stores offer more opportunities for discounts than Dell.

Most people on my campus have HPs, Toshibas or Macbooks. There are some Dells but not too many. None of my friends have a Dell...why? Pricing.

 

As a consumer, it matters little to me which brand has higher sales. I do want to know which brand has the best reliability and best service.

 

Just look at the Y2Y growth compared with the 2 digits growth of others DELL fell flat on its face .

This has nothing to do with not going retail , it has to do with disappointing products , I can't think of a single DELL notebook I'd like to have now even with a heavy discount .

 

Well except for the M1330 and the upcoming M1530. The other range in Dell is just simply UGLY... if i can find any word worser than ugly, i ll use it...

 

Why is it a problem that HP is doing better than Dell? Dell already has its time in the past where it outperformed HP by a far greater margin, so this is probably HP's turn of hitting back at Dell. I can expect this trend to fluctuate every few years as PC companies tend to innovate when they lose their market position.
HP also probably has less brand-loyal customers compared to Dell, which seem to have a significant fanbase?

 

That is totally unacceptable IMO. Not only is a laptop supposed to be portable, many times it is used for work. That means when they don't stand by their contractual agreements, you lose money. And when you lose money because of their incompetence you can and should sue them! Find other people with the same problem and band together.

The only thing uglier than ugly is you and "worser."

 

Reason:

Dell has very little presence in brick and mortar stores. As notebook is the dominant form of PC now, it is no longer so "niche"-ish. Most of the consumers want to actually see the product in person. They want to feel the keyboard and do NOT want to wait 2-3 weeks to get a notebook after paying $700-1200. Name recognition only goes so far.

A relatively lack of emphasis on the aesthetic aspect from Dell.
Similar to the mobile phone market, the notebook is also a "fashion" statement so look is increasing as important as performance. Dell looks a bit plain to me but it has several promising products in the pipeline hopefully will address this issue.

Reliability gap appears to be shrinking across brand.
In Despite of the brand loyalty, the actual reliability from various surveys indicates that Dell is just good as HP or Toshiba. The gap in reliability across major brand is diminishing as well. Plus HP's pricing is very competitive compared to Dell.

Improved management at HP
Despite the previous complain, Hurd's focus/management seems to have paid off for HP. This is reflected in both the share price and the market share.
Fiorina almost butchered the company. Hurd turned it around, JMO.


What is most surprising to me is the huge gain by Acer in this survey. However, I suspec the major gain is not in the U.S. but elsewhere.

 

Well, it's no wonder Dell is falling behind.. they're not shipping! I first ordered my D830 in the beginning of September (with a T7700 which seems to have been the problem), and canceled and re-ordered (with T7800) after recommendation from a Dell rep in the end of October (still hadn't received anything except empty promises).

Now it's the beginning of December, and my delivery date just slipped further to the 12th.. god knows if they will deliver then.

 

No it's because the XPS probably has the LED screen and it's hard to beat that in terms of brightness and picture quality. No comparison there. I don't think HP is more superior to Dell in any way at this point. HP has a huge presence in big box retailers, and quite simply, THEY'RE CHEAP!

I think Dell is smart to focus on it's XPS brand as HP simply doesn't have anything like that. You can built a billion laptops, but if you sell them as cheap as HP, eventually the steam will run out just as it did for Dell in the past. I'd say look for Lenovo or Acer to step up and really find a way to capture more of the market in the near future.

 

Although HP is having bigger sales, it doesn't represent by any means superior quality/service/reliability, it just means they are selling more, that's all.
I think the main reason Dell is not growing as fast as HP is because HP is investing more in the look appeal. For example, in my opinion HP laptops have the coolest play/pause/stop (and so on) buttons, but I have my serious doubts if that desing is made to last many years or not.

 

Remember, despite not having an XPS range, HP still has very solid business/commercial notebooks that appeal to both prosumers and corporate customers. As HP is strong in server sales, they usually bundle these as part of a total HP solution for their corporate clients, so workstations + notebooks + servers + printers + software. No other manufacturer have such an edge because they're merely PC builders, not solution providers. Among them, HP has a more diversified business.

 

I actually think the XPS lineup is what's hurting Dell the most. Their variety of laptop offerings seem too diversified to consumers and probably confuses them. Dell needs to drop the Inspiron systems or integrate the XPS systems into the Inspiron lineup. Right now their site has all these different sections of stuff you can click on whereas HP's is actually built to help guide the consumer. Power users know what they want and will find the right product, but clueless people need the guide HP's site offers. Also, HP laptops are currently much more attractive and eye-catching than Dell's. Dell systems lack that glossy reflective shine that HP systems have. Looks play a major role in consumer purchases. Why else would the TV manufacturers fight over who has the best picture?

I think that it's good Dell is moving out into the retail space, but I have to wonder if their designs, specs, and prices can keep pace with HP. I don't think they can do so successfully until they start doing what they're known for well again. Dell has dug themselves into a hole over the past decade and I think they're now going to start paying for it.

 

*Quake Guy Voice*

YOU HAVE TAKEN THE LEAD!

 

The best often do not win the eventual war in technology. Microsoft and Intel are prime examples that market shares are as crucial as quality. There tends to be herd mentality in the consumer segment. I will buy whoever the other person is buying. You are going to see HP dominanting in college campus if Dell doesn't change it's way.

The recent huge price cut from HP (tx1000z for $650!?) shows the willingness of HP to take it to the next level. And reliability survey seems to indicate very small difference between HP and Dell. So why would anyone pay MORE and wait for a laptop 2-3 weeks when they can get something pretty much equivalent in retail shops and cheaper?

Also keep in mind the mass market is not that tech savvy as the ppl here.

 

tx1000z for $650? where? I love that laptop but users complain of too much
fan noise and heat.
You will find several reasons why Hp is selling. (cheap, a history of reliable laptops, and great looks, among others)....though their customer service is getting horrible each day!
If i have less than $1000 to spend on a laptop, i'll look at the Hp. If i have more than $1500 to spend on a laptop, i'll skip the Hp (of course,skip Dell too!!)
If i have $9000plus, i'll hop into the next flight to Japan...pay them to build the lappie of my dreams!!!!(a 11in LED screen, 2days per charge battery, 64gig solid state & 200gig combo plus optical drive, with the most powerful mobile gpu and......)
A rule: the cheapest Hp is better the cheapest Dell. If you want Dell, pls dont buy the $500/$600 ones, they are lemons....just my obsrvation.

 

Here's my two cents:

- No complicated promotions that expire as soon as they get popular
- HPs often look better than Dells
- Marketing. They have more airtime

I have a HP desktop from 2003, and the parts are failing one by one. The mouse behaved erratically before it died. The power button LED died. The speakers are behaving erratically, the LCD monitor now gives off a weird buzz/ whine.

I guess I should be lucky that the hard drive or CPU hasn't broken yet, but having all these niggling part failures makes me want to get a new computer from a (relatively) smaller OEM like Asus or Lenovo.

 

Click here http://www.dealsofamerica.com/laptop_deals.php and scroll down.

Check out for tx1000z.
It's actually $719.99 now. There was a deal for 30% for $999 and with paypal discount you would pay $649 + free shipping. Now it's gone.

OfficeMax also has tx1205u for $699.99. But I think I will skip the AMD stuff. Gets way too hot as you have mentioned. But looks like HP is doing some heavy discounting on these models lately be it online or at retail stores.

Now back to regular programming on Dell vs HP.

 

Going retail is part of it, though. When my family got a new desktop in 2003, we just went over to Circuit City and picked the best one they had there (which was, in fact, HP). Same in 1999 (Sony at that time). If we hadn't gotten high-speed Internet last year, it probably would have been the same this time around. Buying at the store is more convenient when you have limited Internet access or need something quickly.

Dell has a large share of the notebooks on my campus despite this (and not having any special discounts/school endorsement), but it probably would be higher were they in stores. The school itself uses IBM, Gateway, and a small number of Sony. Supposedly there are some Apples, as well, but I've yet to find them.

I do agree the Inspiron design has improved. IMO the design is better than HP's overall, but that's a matter of opinion. The 9400 design certainly pales to the new ones, though.

Really? My 2003 HP still works fine (and often), with no trouble other than a slight bit of overheating, which was fixed by removing tons of dust. HP Mouse works fine, too, though its varnish wore off after awhile. Speakers are good. Didn't buy the HP monitor, though strangely the NEC one on that computer does give off a weird buzz/whine on 1280x1024 resolution (silent on any other resolution). It's CRT, though, so I doubt the problem is related.

Dell's site also offers guides on what to buy. Unless I missed one on HP's site, both guides are integrated into "Which one should I buy" sections by the processor/graphics/memory/etc. choices.

HP systems are more glossy, but that can also be a negative. Not everyone likes their laptop to double as a mirror . IMO HP is the worst in terms of glossy-ness, as in, they are the most glossy.

There is more of a difference in TV's than computer monitors. I can tell a lot more of a difference between 40-inch TV screens than 15-inch computer monitors. I think the variety in quality is higher in TV's, too. I saw a 720i TV at Circuit City the other day that had much worse quality than the Standard Definition TV at my house. There were sigficant differences within 1080p TV's, as well - some had noticeably jumpy images, and less clarity. Sometimes 720i TV's were decidedly better than 1080p ones of the same size. There is certainly a difference in TV screen quality. And if you're buying a TV, the only thing you really care about is the picture quality. With computers, screen quality is also an issue, but the differences are generally smaller. Most people can't tell the difference between the screen on a Dell and HP and Toshiba and IBM. Most people can't even tell a matte from a glossy, at least without direct comparison.

 

I am interested in an ultraportable and owning a dv6000t has made me a huge fan of HP. However, I too heard people having a lot of trouble with this TX edition, have you used it? Is it a good laptop? That price is great, but is that the only configuration you can get around that price range?

 

I have tried it a few times.

The negatives are:

1) Gets a bit warm
2) Relatively poor battery life
3) Lack of active digitizer (wacom). But some ppl seem to manage without it. Personally, I don't think it's effective for taking notes. The pressure that you need to apply is a bit hard for me. If they put on wacom screen, i will definitely get one tho.

 

You definitely have a point. In fact Dells are mainly oriented to North-America`s markets, whereas HPs are easily bought and supported by local services worldwide, including America. In my country (Latvia, Europe) there is only one Dell provider and none Dell service center. But HPs are the most sold notebook PCs down here. My friend accidentally damaged his Pavilion`s screen and guys in HP`s warranty service repaired it without any charge. No need to say that normally the warranty doesn`t cover such damage If that was a Dell instead, it would cost my body some 400$ for sure.

 

The other weird thing is HP doesn't seem to generate as much hits on the web as Dell does. The top 10 notebooks listing are mostly Dells and Lenovos and seldom HP. Many tech people swear by Dells for PCs, but few know much about HPs. I guess a lot of HP retail purchasers are regular mom & dad PC consumers who buys whatever is being stocked in the shops.

 

Yeah these are the issues that people have mentioned on cnet and a few other places. Is there another recommended ultraportable below the $1300 mark? For the price though, the TX seems like a great deal. A 12.1" Laptop for $700!!

 

There is a online sale for Lenovo now for the X61 and X61 tablet. On this site, there is a deal for 20% and that deal is also on the site that I have attached above.

From the link that I attached earlier (I don't know the validity of the coupon), there is two Lenovo ultraportables on sale:

ThinkPad X61 7675CTO Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, 12.1" XGA, 1GB RAM, 80GB, Wifi - Black for $819.00 + Free Shipping **$546 Off**HOT**20% off Coupon**

Thinkpad X61 Tablet 7764CTO Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz, 12.1" WVA SXGA, 1GB RAM, 160GB, Vista Business - Black for $1,289.40 + Free Shipping **HOT**$859.60 Off**20% Off Coupon**

But in either case, you have only 80G and DVD-ROM
The tablet however includes a WWAN. In either case, you would upgrade RAM to 2GB


BTW, I don't think DELL is finished by any mean. But change of biz model is in the work I am sure.

 

Yup, looking for an ultra-portable too. I dont really need the tablet functionality.
The problem is, i want all the good things that can fit into a 15in to fit into an ultaportable.!! things like...
1-solid state hard drive PLUS a regular mechanical drive (since SSD is usually only up to 64gigs)
2-i want an optical drive too!!!
3-good gpu (i play games occasionally,but when i do, i like more current games)
4-LED
5-amazing battery life, light weight, minimal heat&noise
6-CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyone knows anything that fits this description?
i have to wait 5 more years.