Market researcher IDC has totted up numbers of PCs sold for 2006:
The big news was HP continuing to zero in on long-time number one Dell. A recent well-publicised house fire in the US will not help Dell's case.

In brief, Dell launched an attack on HP's heartland by releasing a Dell printer range (although it's taken a while, Dell printers have finally landed in NZ, and in our test center - see the first review in our April issue).

HP figured the best form of defense was offense and, while sticking with its channel model, has re-envigorated its PC division, keeping Dell pinned down, relatively, on its on turf.

Last week, Dell's board decided the company had been in a slump too long, and fired CEO Kevin Rollins. Founder Michael Dell (still only 42) returned to the helm. It'll be interesting to see how he reacts to the new situation; he's certainly not a man who does things by halves.

Anyway, here's how IDC's global sales chart looked for the year:

PC maker: PC shipments*
Dell: 39.1
HP: 38.8
Lenovo: 16.6
Acer: 13.6
Toshiba: 9.2

* by dollar value, in $US billions

In New Zealand, where Dell launched some time after the US, it's never been at number one. Recent IDC figures have had HP top dog, with Dell and Acer alternating in the number two slot, followed by Lenovo and Toshiba.