HP, Dell vie for lead in notebook shipments

Hewlett-Packard ranked as the world's largest manufacturer of notebook PCs in the fourth quarter of 2004. But rival Dell still shipped the most notebooks during all of 2004, new data from IDC shows.

HP led notebook shipments in the fourth quarter due in part to its efforts in Europe, where it has a large share of the market, IDC analyst Loren Loverde said. HP shipped 2.3 million notebooks worldwide during the quarter vs. second-ranked Dell's 2.2 million. But Dell's yearly tally of portable PCs shipped--7.9 million--was higher. HP shipped 7.4 million notebooks in 2004, putting it in second place worldwide. Toshiba, for its part, ranked third in both the fourth quarter and the year, shipping 1.7 million and 5.8 million notebooks respectively, IDC said.