HispanicBusiness

PC maker Lenovo continued to outperform all comers by a wide margin in the fourth quarter, according to a new report.

The No. 2 PC maker, which is based in China but has a headquarters in Morrisville that employs 1,800 workers, enjoyed a 36.8 percent increase in shipments worldwide in the fourth quarter compared to a year ago, according to market research firm IDC.

That contrasts with an overall decline of two-tenths of a percent as the industry struggled with a sluggish economy and competition from other consumer electronics, including tablet devices, eReaders and smartphones. A shortage of hard disk drives also was a factor.

Lenovo, which started out last year as the No. 4 PC maker, continued to gain ground on market leader Hewlett Packard, whose worldwide shipments fell 15.9 percent. HP's fourth-quarter market share fell to 16.3 percent, versus 14 percent for Lenovo.

IDC analyst David Daoud said Lenovo has been benefiting from a strong management commitment to the PC market at the same time that HP was contemplating exiting the business altogether. But now that HP has a new CEO and a renewed focus on PCs, he sees the competition for Lenovo getting tougher going forward.

A second research firm, Gartner, also released its data for fourth-quarter PC shipments late Wednesday. The two reports noted similar trends and identical rankings, but details vary.

Gartner credited Lenovo's "aggressive pricing in both the professional and consumer market" for its surge.