Dell loses marketshare to HP

There's definitely a momentum loss for Dell, reports IDC's Loren Loverde and Bob O'Donnell, and it's being picked up by Hewlett-Packard and - if you can believe it - Gateway, which could at long last use some good news. Worldwide, IDC says, the PC market is growing at a rate of 12.9% annually, but Dell's sales growth worldwide came in at 10.2% for the quarter just ended, with sales growth for the US in particular slowing from 8% over the holiday season to an astounding 0.3% in Q1 2006. The US PC market as a whole grew at an annual rate of 5.3% in the first quarter, dragged down in large part by Dell as growth figures for HP - the world's #2 - remained strong.