Dell Inc., the world's biggest PC maker, said Friday that China had overtaken Japan to become its third biggest market for unit sales.

China passed Japan in Dell's fiscal third quarter through Oct. 28, putting it behind only the United States and Britain in terms of unit sales, Bill Amelio, Dell's Asia Pacific chief, said.

"China for the first time has become the biggest market for us (in Asia) in terms of shipments," he said. "It's number three worldwide."

"It'll be a while (before it passes Britain)," he added.

Amelio said that Dell expected its share of the China PC market --the world's second largest -- to be in "the 9 percent band" in the third quarter, versus 9.6 percent in the second and 7.3 percent in the third quarter of 2004.

He declined to give specific figures.

But with nationwide PC sales of 5.1 million units in the third quarter, according to International Data Corp., Dell's 9 to 10 percent of the market would equate to about 500,000 units.

(Shenzhen Daily November 14, 2005)