Worldwide PC Market Grew 24 Percent in 1995

Compaq Leads Market for Second Consecutive Year; IBM Regains No. 2 Spot

San Jose, Calif., January 29, 1996—The personal computer industry had another great year with unit shipments reaching 59.7 million, up 24.7 percent from last year, according to Dataquest. Compaq continued its steady pace as the market leader worldwide, increasing shipments more than 1.2 million compared with 1994. IBM shipped 4.8 million units and regained the second spot from Apple.

"Apple lost its No. 2 position to IBM because of a particularly weak fourth quarter amid price wars in Japan and high-cost products relative to its competitors," said Kimball Brown, vice president and chief analyst of Dataquest's Personal Computing program. "In the United States, Packard Bell remained the king of the desktops in 1995, although cash flow problems and a bet on low price rather than great price/performance at the high end contributed to its weakness."

The worldwide PC market showed consistent growth: The 1995 figure of 24.7 percent is up slightly from last year's 23.3 percent. Compaq held the same market share in 1995 as in 1994, but it was able to extended its lead in the market as IBM and Apple both lost market share (see Table 1).

Table 1
Preliminary Top Five PC Vendors by Worldwide Shipment Estimates
(Thousands of Units)

                 1994  1994 Market       1995  1995 Market         Growth 
Company     Shipments    Share (%)  Shipments    Share (%)  1994-1995 (%)
 
Compaq          4,799         10.0      5,999         10.0             25
IBM             3,937          8.2      4,780          8.0             21
Apple           3,957          8.3      4,658          7.8             18
Packard Bell    2,473          5.2      3,169          5.3             28
NEC             1,941          4.1      2,864          4.8             48
Others         30,794         64.3     38,249         64.0             24
Total          47,901        100.0     59,719        100.0           24.7
Note: Columns may not add to totals shown because of rounding.
Source: Dataquest (January 1996)

In the United States, the PC industry did not keep up with worldwide growth, as U.S. PC shipments grew 21 percent in 1995. Compaq held onto the No. 1 position despite showing a slight drop in market share.

The most active vendor was Hewlett-Packard. HP grabbed the seventh position in the United States with 126.6 percent growth in 1995. Acer America also had a strong showing with 80 percent growth to take the eighth spot (see Table 2).

Table 2
Preliminary Top 10 U.S. Personal Computer Unit Shipment Estimates
(Thousands of Units)

                 1994  1994 Market       1995  1995 Market         Growth 
Company     Shipments    Share (%)  Shipments    Share (%)  1994-1995 (%)
Compaq          2,335         12.6      2,756         12.2             18
Packard Bell    2,130         11.4      2,554         11.3             21
Apple           2,165         11.6      2,504         11.1             16
IBM             1,669          9.0      1,876          8.3             13
Gateway 2000      960          5.2      1,143          5.1             19
Dell Computer     790          4.2      1,036          4.6             31
Hewlett-Packard   443          2.4      1,004          4.5            127
Acer America      455          2.4        819          3.6             80
Toshiba           676          3.6        779          3.5             15
AST Research      720          3.9        536          2.4            -26
Others          6,262         33.7      7,524         33.4             20
Total          18,605        100.0     22,531        100.0             21
Source: Dataquest (January 1996)

Dataquest's Worldwide Quarterly PC Statistics program surveys more than 30 PC makers. To purchase this report, or inquire about Dataquest's other reports, please call 800-419-DATA. More information about Dataquest's programs, descriptions of recent research reports, and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://www.dataquest.com.

Dataquest, founded in 1971, is a global market research and consulting company serving the high-technology and financial communities. The company provides worldwide market coverage on the semiconductor, computer systems and peripherals, communications, document management, software, and services sectors of the information technology industry. Dataquest is a GartnerGroup [ http://www.gartner.com/ ] Company.