Q3 figures put HP in the drivers seat

Preliminary PC market results from research company IDC show Hewlett-Packard still on top in the third quarter, although not by as wide a margin as in Q2.

Preliminary PC market results from research company IDC show Hewlett-Packard still on top in the third quarter, although not by as wide a margin as in Q2.

"Hewlett-Packard led the way with 33.6% market share overall, down from a massive 41.6% in Q2 2002, the first post merger quarter," says IDC analyst Darian Bird.

IBM fended off Dell for second spot while fourth saw local firm The PC Company come in as the first New Zealand assembler home.

"HP's lead wasn't as dominant in Q3, with Dell and IBM trying to find cracks in the newly merged vendor," says Bird.

In the laptop market HP again edged out Toshiba - that's the second time in a year Toshiba has fallen to HP.

A standout performance from Christchurch-based Insite Technology, which took out the third position in the Intel-based server market, is due to its one-off deal with special effects firm Weta.

Bird says the year-on-year growth is positive, although a lot depends on the economy as a whole, as IT spending is still somewhat restricted.

However he notes that this is the first time since Y2K that business will upgrade its hardware in any major way, and that should boost the market this coming year.