Dell has overtaken Hewlett-Packard for the first time as the largest vendor of PCs for US consumers during the fourth quarter, according to new data .
The improvement follows a shift by Dell - the world's largest personal computer maker, which employs about 5,500 people in Limerick and Bray - to focus on the consumer market to compensate for slowing corporate sales.
The biggest loser in the US home market was Gateway.
Although Dell nudged out Hewlett-Packard in the US, Hewlett-Packard retained its number one position in global consumer sales, with a 10.6 per cent market share for notebooks and desktop PCs. Dell is third, with 8.9 per cent.