Hewllet-Packard became the top PC seller in the United States in the first quarter of this fiscal year after dethroning Dell. This change in the top 3 happened while shipments of desktops and laptops fell 7.1% in the aforementioned period compared to the same period last year when 63.5 million units were sold. 

 

Dell is in the process of revitalizing its business. The process started with the return of the company’s founder Michael Dell in early 2007. He came back to the computer maker after the company he founded lost the place as the largest computer maker in the world to HP. 

 

“Dell still faces some challenges in its efforts to reignite its business," said Bob O'Donnell, vice president of IDC, the company that provided the data regarding the situation of the computer market. 

 

However, in the United States thing were better than overseas. PC shipments fell just 3.1$ in the US market. According to data from another research company, Gartner, worldwide PC shipments fell 6.5 percent in the quarter. 

 

"The U.S. was surprisingly strong, it outperformed our forecast," said O'Donnell. He added that the two most important factors that dethroned Dell from the top spot were the tough competition in the retail sector and the weak U.S. business market caused by the economic recession. 

 

However, the results were a bit better than the research firm was expecting. The total global PC market in 2008 was of $243 billion. IDC forecasted an 8.2 percent decline and not 7.1 percent. 

 

Although concerns about the economic recession remained strong; the demand for computers remained resilient. Prices fell and netbooks sales recorded a strong growth and this helped minimize the contraction of the PC market.