PC sales fall again

Worldwide PC shipments fell again in the third fiscal quarter of the year, this time by 12 per cent.

According to two reports from Gartner and IDC, the terrorist attacks of 11 September caused the fall in sales.

However, Dell Computer continued to increase its share of what little sales there were, to the detriment of arch-rival Compaq and other PC makers.

Gartner predicts yearly sales will fall off in 2001 by six per cent from last year, while IDC predicts the decline in sales will continue for at least another fiscal year.

Dell upped its market share to nearly 14 per cent, the reports say, gaining three per cent over the year.

Compaq's fortunes have reversed this year in similar proportions.

Gartner put Compaq's poor performance down not only to the attack on the terror attacks, but also to the ill-received merger between the company and HP.

HP's market share fell one per cent over the year and had the slowest growth in shipments since 1997.

IBM's share of the global market declined by half a per cent to 6.5 per cent. However, its share of the US market increased to six per cent.