Global PC shipments up 15 pc in 3Q

NEW YORK: PC shipments worldwide grew 15 percent in the July-September period from a year earlier, to 80.6 million units, the research firm Gartner Inc. said Tuesday.

But an economic slowdown in the US hit shipments of computers in the third quarter, with the professional market being affected the most. PC shipments in the US grew 4.6 percent to 17.4 million units.

"The US professional market experienced the biggest hit from the economic crunch," said Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa. "The US home market saw definite softness in PC sales after a few quarters of strong growth."

Hewlett-Packard Co kept its position as the world's biggest PC maker, with 18.4 percent of the market. Dell Inc was second, with 13.6 percent. Acer Inc of Taiwan remained in third place, at 12.5 percent.

The hottest product category was ``mini-notebooks,'' or ``netbooks,'' Gartner said. These are cheap laptops, generally with screens smaller than 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) diagonally, that started appearing last year. One of 20 laptops sold in the U.S. in the quarter was a mini-notebook, according to Gartner.

Though it now has a mini-notebook, HP's slow entry into the category cost it its position at the top of the market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Kitagawa wrote. In those areas, Acer was the largest seller.

Apple Inc, the only major manufacturer that doesn't base its computers on Microsoft Corp's Windows software, kept gaining share in the US market, going from 7.7 percent a year ago to 9.5 percent in the latest period.