Dataquest reported that Compaq grew its market share from 14.4 to 19.1 percent in the U.S. and 10.2 to 13.7 percent worldwide. In terms of unit growth, Compaq surged 63 percent and 56 percent, respectively, in the U.S. and international markets. They definitely widened their lead in the market. Aggressive pricing, especially from Compaq and HP, largely contributed to the gains reported by the big name players, he added. Pricing pressure will not likely ease up, meaning that life for second-tier vendors will get more difficult.
Prices are much lower in general.
The people who are having a difficult time are the ASTs and the Digitals . Bill Schaub, a Dataquest analyst, pointed out that one in five PCs sold in the U.S. came from Compaq. Dataquest called this consolidation toward leading names unprecedented. Dell and HP showed similar results. According to Dataquest, Dell grew from 7.2 to 10.3 percent in the U.S., and 4.3 to 6.0 percent worldwide.