Dell’s PC business remains steady
Company holds No. 2 spot in U.S. shipments, just behind HP.
Worldwide personal computer shipments grew for the first in six years while Round Rock-based Dell Technologies maintained its steady growth, according to new industry data for the second quarter of 2018.
Dell remained third worldwide for the quarter with PC shipments totaling 10.4 million units — behind Lenovo’s 13.6 million and HP Inc.’s 13.5 million, according to tech industry research firm Gartner Inc.
While its competitors have shown PC shipment declines periodically in the past two years, Dell shipments have remained steady because of the technology giant’s focus on growth while cutting off unprofitable business, according to Gartner.
Overall, Gartner found that global PC shipments saw a 1.4 percent increase from one year ago, with Dell growing by 9.5 percent from the second quarter of 2017. Dell also increased its global market share from 15.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017 to 16.8 percent.
“PC shipment growth in the second quarter of 2018 was driven by demand in the business market, which was offset by declining shipments in the consumer segment,” Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, said in a written statement.
The tech research firm is not quite ready to declare a recovery for the PC market, which suffered setbacks with the popularity of smartphones and tablets.
Meanwhile, Dell held the No. 2 spot in U.S. shipments, just behind HP’s 4.2 million units shipped compared to its 4.1 million.
The country’s PC market returned to growth after six consecutive quarters of shipment decline — totaling 14.5 million units this quarter, Gartner found.
“In the U.S., business PC demand was particularly strong among the public sector as the second quarter is typically PC buying season among government and education buyers,” Kitagawa said.
Dell’s U.S. PC shipments increased by 7.2 percent from the same quarter of last year, according to Gartner.
PCs remain an important part of Dell’s revenue stream and product portfolio, but it has also diversified into storage, servers and other IT products and services.
Dell is the Austin area’s largest private employer.