Bangalore: IBM today (Sep 1, 2004) announced that it has moved into second place in worldwide commercial PC notebook customer spending, surpassing HP (Helvett Packard) in the second quarter 2004, according to data released by market research firm IDC.

In addition, IBM's commercial PC notebook shipments in the second quarter 2004 were the highest ever for IBM in a single quarter, and represented the seventh consecutive quarter of unit growth for ThinkPad notebooks, based on IDC's reports.

"IBM ThinkPads are built for business and we believe very strongly that business customers value innovation that helps them cut their costs and improve their efficiencies," said Fran O'Sullivan, general manager, IBM Personal Computer Division.

IBM's second quarter 2004 performance showed IBM ThinkPad shipments growing at a faster pace than the overall industry in both year-to-year and quarter-to-quarter measurements, thereby allowing IBM to achieve some hard-fought gains in its commercial PC notebook market share, based on the IDC numbers.

IBM has added several new ThinkPad models in 2004 to its award-winning line of commercial PC notebooks, including the ultraportable ThinkPad X40, and the thin and light ThinkPad T42. IBM ThinkPad notebooks are the only commercial PC notebooks to feature ThinkVantage Technologies, a set of tools designed to help customers reduce their service and support costs and simplify common user problems.

In addition, separate recent survey results from both Technology Business Research and PC Magazine indicated that IBM has solidified its commercial PC notebook customer satisfaction scores. In the latest TBR customer survey, IBM was the most improved notebook vendor. In the latest PC Magazine survey, IBM won the Reader's Choice award for notebooks yet again, based on high marks for overall satisfaction, reliability, service and support.