SYDNEY, 24 NOVEMBER 2009 - The Asia Pacific market held up the strongest in terms fourth quarter sales for leading personal computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard in fourth quarter 2009, according to the company's annual results released yesterday.
AP declined only 1 per cent in the fourth quarter to $US5.4 billion, while the Americas suffered a 3 per cent slide to $US13.6 billion and Europe, the Middle East and Africa market declined the largest percentage, down 17 per cent to $US11.7 billion.
Revenue from Brazil, Russia, India and China fell 4 per cent on the previous comparable period. Revenue from China increased 20 per cent from the previous year.
International business outside the United States accounted for 64 per cent of HP's total revenue.
Meanwhile HP has reported full year net revenue down 3 per cent year-on-year to $US114.6 billion.
The company's personal systems group (PSG) posted an 8 per cent increase in shipments to maintain a leading position in the personal computer market, but despite the increase PSG revenue finished the year down 12 per cent on the year previous at $US9.9 billion due an 8 per cent slump in netbook sales and a 16 per cent slide in desktop sales.
The consumer market held up stronger than the commercial market with revenue dipping 8 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.
Despite the falls, the results represent a recovery for HP in the PC market, up 17 per cent on third quarter results.
Services revenue finished the year up 8 per cent to $US8.9 billion, while Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS) reported total revenue of $US4.2 billion, down 17 per cent.
HP has continued to sneak ground from Dell, the competitor falling into third place in global market share in the third quarter, behind HP and Acer.
A report by analyst firm IDC placed HP's market share at 20.2 per cent in Q3, up 1.1 per cent on the year previous, while Acer took 14 per cent and Dell fell to 12.7 per cent global market share, down 1.5 per cent year-on-year. Dell was the only manufacturer in the top three to lose ground.
