PC market explodes in 1998, beating expectations

Despite dire predictions of a slowdown in the PC market, market researcherDataquest says the market actually grew 15% in 1998, blowing past previousexpectations. This bodes well for 1999 as well, the company says, citingthe huge demand for low-end systems based on the Intel Celeron.

"The industry has done a phenomenal job of bringing affordable PCs to households," says Dataquest VP William Schaub.

According to the report, Compaq leads the PC market with almost 13 millionunits shipped in 1998. IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Packard Bell/NEC round out the top five PC makers. Apple is not in the top five for U.S. orworldwide sales or marketshare, despite a strong showing by its new iMac.Schaub notes that Apple has nowhere to go but up, however, as its marketshare is still under 4%