White Box PC's Dominate Market
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-World-PC-Sales.html"; target="_blank">NY Times report </a>
[quote] NEW YORK (AP) -- A new survey that tracks personal computer sales shows that small no-name vendors carry a far bigger share of the world market than any of the big U.S. PC makers like Dell or Compaq.
The survey, released Wednesday by technology research firm IDC, shows that 500 small ``white box'' PC vendors -- operating in some 55 countries around the world -- captured more than 58 percent of the personal computer sales in 2001.
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By comparison, market leaders Dell, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard captured less than a third of the world's PC market, or 13 percent, 11 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
IBM's PC sales counted for 6 percent of the market and Fujitsu Siemens 4.5 percent.
Worldwide, PC shipments slumped 4 percent in 2001 to 134 million, the survey found.
``These white box players have a significant share of the market,'' said Loren Loverde, an IDC analyst who follows the industry. ``There's plenty of competition there.''
The staying power of the small vendor is due to price -- most sell cheaper machines -- as well as the personal attention and services that many companies offer their buyers, Loverde said.
``The majors have tried to penetrate the small business and local government sectors, but it's been challenging because the small players have been able to provide services, price and flexibility,'' Loverde said. ``The opportunity is there, but it's not exactly low-hanging fruit.''
After IDC revised its figures to account for the smaller vendors, it shaved almost a percent from the market share held by Dell and Compaq. Dell, which saw its market share increase more than 16 percent between 2000 and 2001, overtook Compaq as the world's number one PC vendor.
This year's merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq ought to push the combined company into the top spot for 2002, Loverde predicted.
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[quote] NEW YORK (AP) -- A new survey that tracks personal computer sales shows that small no-name vendors carry a far bigger share of the world market than any of the big U.S. PC makers like Dell or Compaq.
The survey, released Wednesday by technology research firm IDC, shows that 500 small ``white box'' PC vendors -- operating in some 55 countries around the world -- captured more than 58 percent of the personal computer sales in 2001.
Advertisement
By comparison, market leaders Dell, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard captured less than a third of the world's PC market, or 13 percent, 11 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
IBM's PC sales counted for 6 percent of the market and Fujitsu Siemens 4.5 percent.
Worldwide, PC shipments slumped 4 percent in 2001 to 134 million, the survey found.
``These white box players have a significant share of the market,'' said Loren Loverde, an IDC analyst who follows the industry. ``There's plenty of competition there.''
The staying power of the small vendor is due to price -- most sell cheaper machines -- as well as the personal attention and services that many companies offer their buyers, Loverde said.
``The majors have tried to penetrate the small business and local government sectors, but it's been challenging because the small players have been able to provide services, price and flexibility,'' Loverde said. ``The opportunity is there, but it's not exactly low-hanging fruit.''
After IDC revised its figures to account for the smaller vendors, it shaved almost a percent from the market share held by Dell and Compaq. Dell, which saw its market share increase more than 16 percent between 2000 and 2001, overtook Compaq as the world's number one PC vendor.
This year's merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq ought to push the combined company into the top spot for 2002, Loverde predicted.
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Comments
They have very huge operating expense and have very little profit out from their product (except server, enterprise solutions etc)...
<strong>Damn, beat me to posting this story. Interesting, eh? The point is customers look to cost as the primary factor more than half the time in the PC market. Maybe Apple should create a new division to tap into the crappy bargain basement PC market. . .</strong><hr></blockquote>
No doubt. I have two PC's ..home built of course. Now that PC cases are getting better I doubt that I'll ever buy a premade box, unless it's a Mac
He told me that their margin is only 50 bucks (in CANADIAN DOLLARS) per CPU :eek:
Even with an ultra high end machine the margin is still less than $100. And it rarely happens.
Therefore they have to sell A LOT of machines in order to cover their operating cost
[edit] When they have some old parts in warehouse they have to sell them at loss
[ 06-13-2002: Message edited by: Leonis ]</p>
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
<strong>I really am curious on how these big names can survive.
They have very huge operating expense and have very little profit out from their product (except server, enterprise solutions etc)...</strong><hr></blockquote>
The same way Apple survives, at least the PC makers are shipping millions more units than Apple from which to recoup their capital investments.
The whitebox segment of the PC market has always been the largest segment for markeshare. There is nothing new in this report.