Apple reclaims US' third biggest PC seller spot
Tied with Gateway
Apple is now once again holding third place in the US PC market, sales figures from market watcher IDC have revealed. A return to form? Not quite, since its 5.6 per cent share is well below the double-digit share Apple commanded in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Apple was also tied for third place with Gateway, which likewise took 5.6 per cent of the US PC market in Q2. Below them came Toshiba with 5.3 per cent and Acer with 5.2 per cent. No guesses as to which companies outsold these four.
Yes, Dell and HP continue to dominate, each outselling the Apple, Gateway, Toshiba and Acer combined. Dell took the lead with a 28.4 per cent share, while HP's tally hit 23.6 per cent.
Like Formula One racing, the interesting battle in the US PC business is not for first or second place, but who'll get the remaining place on the podium and a share of the points. Here, Apple fans have plenty to shout about - for many, many years the Mac maker wouldn't warrant lifting outside the blanket 'Others' category, let alone get ahead of the likes of Acer and Toshiba.
And Apple's shipments were up 26.2 per cent year on year, compared to an industry average of 7.2 per cent. But let's not get cocky. Toshiba and Acer experienced shipment growth of 50 per cent and 163.8 per cent, respectively, though Gateway's shipments were down 7.1 per cent. And Gateway actually shipped more units than Apple, just not a sufficient number to gain a higher percentage share.
Worldwide, Apple didn't make the top five list with a share of less than the 3.8 per cent it would need for a joint fifth place with Toshiba.
Still, there's no doubt we are seeing a resurgence in Mac sales, particularly in the US. And if that means there's just a little bit of variety in an otherwise Windows world - Linux won't trouble the scorer much, not for new-bought systems, at least - that's no bad thing.
COMMENTS
@ Snert Lee
Unless you classify iPods and iPhones as PCs then the fact that the statistics are to do with shifting only PCs suggest that you are being overly suspicious ;)
Components of Apple's Increase?
Perhaps I'm just overly suspicious, but I don't see anything saying Apple's market share increase isn't due to ipods and iphones.
Wrong statistic
These numbers really don't convey the important questions, of which there are arguably two.
First, what is the OS split for newly installed systems? It was once simple to know that if Apple sold a Mac it ran MacOS. No longer. They make very nice laptops that can run a competitor's OS. Similarly a PC, although it can't run MacOS, can run many Unix variants. How much of the increase in Mac laptop sales might be attributed, not to users fleeing Vista, but to users installing Vista?
Secondly, what are the manufacture's shares of the market? It isn't the brand-names. They don't make anything anymore. The real market split is between Acer, Asus, Mitac, Wintec, Quanta, and a legion of other Taiwanese companies. Companies that might sell a few things under their own brand-name, but for the most part the lions share of their business is as the faceless powerhouses that create the computers branded by the so called market share leaders.
(To avoid too many flames, this was written on a G4 17" Powerbook.)
Maybe a backlash against Vista...
I thinks that some of the increased sales from Apple could very well be linked to some customers not wanting to put up with Vista.
If you will have to learn a new interface and put up with driver an application compatibility issues anyway, why not switch to a Mac?
Also if the linux based Asus EEE PC 701 is successfull (and I think it will, unless Asus underestimate demand so much that we have a prolonged "Wii shortage situation") we may have more OS variety in the near future. Also this will probably grow the market share of Asus (in unit numbers) since they will probably be selling a lot of cheap units.
Why such a big deal about...
All this fuss about who is the biggest producer of PCs???? I am not sure what the big deal is all about. A Dell looks and acts just like an HP, an Acer, etc, etc. So what if one company fell off the face of the earth, the other companies would make up the shortfall, but the computers would all act the same way and look the same way.
OK, so some would burst into flames and some might not!!! LOL -- But otherwise, they all run windoz. And before you put me down as a mind numb Apple fanboy, (I use both at work) ask yourself the same question.
Everyone points out that unless you have double digit numbers here, you are somehow lacking. I have no idea what they might be lacking since they are all the same computer and definitily the same operating system. I just think its nice to see Apple making such a nice showing since it gives people a choice. You can buy it or not, but in an Apple less world, what other choice makes a difference.?????
Just a thought. :-) As for me, I'm getting ready for the weekend. LOL
en
