HP Regains the Crown in the Notebook Business

Every time you see the words "Dell" and "HP" in the same sentence, a market analysis is sure to follow. This time it's about laptops (again). I said "again" because the clash of the titans has produced more press comments than you could ever read. In fact, I'm pretty sure that when you'll read the first lines of this article, you'll realize that you've probably read the same thing on another website. Anyway, let's get back to business.

Dell held the crown in the laptop segment from the end of 2005 until the summer of 2006, but it seems that HP has finally outpaced them by just about 50,000 units. Key to HP taking the lead was the sustained quarter growth of 36%, according to DisplaySearch. In the 3rd quarter of 2006, the market growth was about 19%, while the end of the year came with almost twice that percent (35%)

The good news keeps on coming to the HP headquarters just in time for the end of 2006. For example, they also came out on top spot in only two regional geographies - in Asia Pacific and Latin America. Dell still holds the lead HP in North America by more than 6% market share. Acer - which generally sells low cost notebooks - surpassed HP in EMEA by more than 4% share, DisplaySearch said.

HP held a sustained 17.7% market share in the global notebook market in the third quarter, followed by Dell with 17.5%, Acer with 11.8%, Toshiba with 10.7% and Lenovo with 8.2%. The scene seems unchanged with some sustained growth coming only from the value notebook manufacturers. Acer, for example, has managed to produce an amazing 68% growth over its 2005 laptop shipments.