FRAMINGHAM, MA, Jan. 18 - The worldwide PC market remained strong in the fourth quarter of 2004 with growth of 13.7% driven by smaller businesses and holiday consumer demand, according to IDC.

Shipments rose to 51.5 million units for the quarter, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of double-digit growth and beating projections of 13% growth.

Shipments for all of 2004 reached 177.5 million units on growth of 14.7%, representing peak recovery following the market contraction of 2001. Total shipments in 2004 were more than 26% over 2000 volumes.

IDC forecasts growth of 10% in 2005 followed by declining growth in the single digits.

"Business demand and growth in key regions like EMEA continue to drive the market," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. "Although we saw a seasonal rise in consumer shipments, business remains a larger market and has been growing faster since mid-2004. Ongoing PC replacements and new investment should continue to drive commercial growth at least through the end of 2005."

Dell is now the uncontested market leader. After ceding the top spot to HP in the fourth quarter of 2002 and 2003 following HP's merger with Compaq, Dell managed to distance itself from HP by a full point of market share in the fourth quarter, and seems to have the momentum on its side.

Significant improvements were seen from Gateway and Apple.

"The fourth quarter of 2004 represented a milestone in the personal computing industry, as total worldwide volume exceed the figure of 47.4 million set a decade ago in 1994 for the entire year," said Roger Kay, vice president. "Spending on PCs by all sizes of business continues to improve steadily, and consumers came out in force in the holiday quarter to pursue their growing interest in PCs and the digital lifestyle."

Other findings:

• Dell - Dell managed another strong quarter and maintained its top rank with a solid performance across regions and total shipment growth of more than 21%. The strong results further consolidated Dell's lead, preventing HP from taking back the top rank as it did in the fourth quarter of 2002 and 2003.
• HP - HP remained a strong second, benefiting from sequential growth in EMEA and the consumer segment. Nevertheless, overall growth of 9% was slightly slower than the market.
• IBM - IBM shipped record volumes in the fourth quarter and grew worldwide shipments by 9% year on year with strong portables growth. News of the sale of IBM's PC Division to Lenovo in December temporarily slowed sales in the U.S., although demand picked up again by the end of the month.
• Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens - Fujitsu Siemens had a solid quarter, keeping pace with growth in the EMEA market, but facing a tough market in Japan.
• Toshiba - Toshiba continues to benefit from the mobile adoption trend, growing roughly on par with overall portable shipments.
• Gateway - Gateway saw a strong sequential increase as it worked through merger issues and took advantage of demand in small business and consumer segments. Although year-on-year growth was behind the market, the fourth quarter marks the first positive growth since the merger with eMachines, and is an important step in moving the company forward.
• Acer - Acer had another strong quarter led by aggressive growth in EMEA, which represented over 70% of Acer's worldwide shipments for the quarter.
• Apple - Apple had a notably strong quarter, with growth of more than 25%. This gain represents a significant improvement over prior quarters, reflecting the introduction of the G5 iMac as well as some substantiation that PC sales have benefited from the popularity of Apple's music business.

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