Apple Captures 19.5% of Global PC and Tablet Market in Q4 2013

MacRumors · Feb 5, 2014

Apple again led the combined PC and tablet market in shipments during Q4 2013, according to a report from research firm Canalys. Apple shipped 30.9 million Mac and iPad units, accounting for a 19.5% share of the market. Lenovo secured the second spot behind Apple by increasing its market share 25.5% year-over-year, as the Chinese company jumped over HP and now has an 11.8% share of the global PC market.

Canalys' estimates show that 84.3% of Apple's shipments, or 26 million units, were iPads. The combined launch of the iPad Air and the Retina iPad mini helped boost the company's share of the overall tablet market from 27.4% in Q4 2012 to 34.1% in Q4 2013.

Apple remained the PC market leader in Q4, shipping 30.9 million units to take a 19.5% share of the market. It shipped 26.0 million iPads, which accounted for 84.3% of its total shipments in Q4. Apple's share of the overall tablet market increased sequentially from 27.3% to 34.1%, with the launch of the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display providing a much needed boost. The original iPad mini also fell in price, down to US$299 in the US, making it cheaper than ever to buy an iPad. But competition is mounting and Android tablets are falling in price, which will put pressure on Apple's market share in 2014.

Overall, the worldwide combined PC and tablet market was bolstered by strong consumer interest in tablets and grew 17.9% in the final quarter of 2013. The tablet market increased 65.2% year-over-year, while PC shipments declined 6.9% yearly. In total, tablets now account for 48.3% of the total PC market.

Article Link: Apple Captures 19.5% of Global PC and Tablet Market in Q4 2013

Sky Blue · Feb 5, 2014

so really it's vastly the iPad with a teeny tiny bit of Mac.

maflynn · Feb 5, 2014

Take out the iPad and its a vastly different picture.

Cali Fornia · Feb 5, 2014

maflynn said:
Take out the iPad and its a vastly different picture.

I agree, but it still makes sense though: iPads replace PCs, so combining figures seems legit. Including iPhones, for instance, would be ridiculous on the other hand.

TimeSquareDesi · Feb 5, 2014

Apple needs another home run product to maintain this momentum...

maflynn · Feb 5, 2014

TimeSquareDesi said:
Apple needs another home run product to maintain this momentum...

Agreed, they've been too quiet the past three years.

----------

Cali Fornia said:
I agree, but it still makes sense though: iPads replace PCs, so combining figures seems legit. Including iPhones, for instance, would be ridiculous on the other hand.

I see the logic, but by the same token, they're two different animals. Many consumers use the iPad for content consumption so yeah it does replace a laptop/desktop but for my needs a laptop/desktop is better

Jsameds · Feb 5, 2014

maflynn said:
Take out the iPad and its a vastly different picture.

Change the parameters and a graph will change.

Well thanks for that, Sherlock..

Mockenrue · Feb 5, 2014

This really is an odd metric. I bet Samsung is winning the combined TV and Tablet market. They both have screens and I can use Netflix on both, so why not measure that too? And LG is probably crushing the combined Phone and Refrigerator market...

osofast240sx · Feb 5, 2014

Mockenrue said:
This really is an odd metric. I bet Samsung is winning the combined TV and Tablet market. They both have screens and I can use Netflix on both, so why not measure that too? And LG is probably crushing the combined Phone and Refrigerator market...

That is so not a valid argument!! The iPad is a personal computer The iPad for a good number of people replace their laptop. And since we are in a post PC era tablet should be counted

gnasher729 · Feb 5, 2014

maflynn said:
Take out the iPad and its a vastly different picture.

Samsung would disappear from the chart.

osofast240sx said:
That is so not a valid argument!! The iPad is a personal computer The iPad for a good number of people replace their laptop. And since we are in a post PC era tablet should be counted

Well, it counts what it counts. It probably makes some Apple and Samsung fans happy, and Lenovo, HP and Dell fans less happy. You have to decide for yourself whether the number is important for you and represents something meaningful. For example, for some reason we always see "smartphone" numbers and never "high-end smartphone" or "all phones" numbers. That's three possible numbers, one where Apple looks shrinking and two where it is stable or growing, and guess one which one is rubbed into our noses all the time.

A company developing software both for MacOS X and iOS for example would want to know the trends for Macs and iDevices separately. And they would want iPad + iPhone + iPod Touch numbers accumulated. For a buyer, iPhone and iPad are very different. For a software developer, they are very similar.

gotluck · Feb 5, 2014

I wish apple would treat the iPad like a personal computer, then we wouldn't have to go through all this jailbreak bs just to be an administrator.

Tankmaze · Feb 5, 2014

Mockenrue said:
This really is an odd metric. I bet Samsung is winning the combined TV and Tablet market. They both have screens and I can use Netflix on both, so why not measure that too? And LG is probably crushing the combined Phone and Refrigerator market...

iPad is getting powerful year over year, and lots of productivity apps optimize for the iPad. so it is a computer.

you can't do any productivity apps in a TV or refrigerator, don't be ridiculous.

MH01 · Feb 5, 2014

Jsameds said:
Change the parameters and a graph will change.

Well thanks for that, Sherlock..

You really really missed the point he was making......

And BTW it does not take a Sherlock to deduce that one

, just a little bit of common sense.

musika · Feb 5, 2014

maflynn said:
Agreed, they've been too quiet the past three years.

No they haven't been.

newagemac · Feb 5, 2014

Mockenrue said:
This really is an odd metric. I bet Samsung is winning the combined TV and Tablet market. They both have screens and I can use Netflix on both, so why not measure that too? And LG is probably crushing the combined Phone and Refrigerator market...

This isn't really odd at all. People are buying tablets instead of PCs and they are doing the same things on them. And all of Apple's competitors are pushing Windows which pretty much removes the distinction between tablets and PCs in Windows 8.

You wanna see an odd metric? Take the look at the graphs that somehow compare a company (Apple) with an operating system (Android). Especially given that the operating system in question is given away free to multiple different companies who are in competition with each other thus basically making it a comparison between Apple and everybody else. Nuts.

Polyphonie · Feb 5, 2014

Mockenrue said:
This really is an odd metric. I bet Samsung is winning the combined TV and Tablet market. They both have screens and I can use Netflix on both, so why not measure that too? And LG is probably crushing the combined Phone and Refrigerator market...

TV is not a computer. While most Android tablets especially the cheaper ones are mainly consumption device, the iPad is very much a PC. Even the Surface RT/2 is more limited compared to what one can do on an iPad. For example, the iPad is still the best tablet solution for music production/creation. iOS use the same Core Audio/CoreMIDI architecture from OS X (the platform chosen by most musicians). Neither Windows RT nor Android can handle high performance audio due to high audio latency but also the lack of proper MIDI support. While Windows 8 doesn't share the limitation of RT, it lacks developers support. There's still hardly any touch enabled music production apps available for Windows 8 (after almost 2 years). While the iPad has received tremendous support from developers (Native Instruments, Steinberg, Korg, Propellerheads) from the moment the first iPad was released.

SHirsch999 · Feb 5, 2014

Why are smartphones not included in a survey like this (and for that matter devices like iPod touches)? They are considered pocket computers and in some ways advertised as such.

a.gomez · Feb 5, 2014

This used to be nonsense, now that they include the iPad mini also, it is stupidity. Even apple does not bunch up the numbers. IPads are not good enough to be considered an apple computer.

thelead · Feb 5, 2014

Tankmaze said:
iPad is getting powerful year over year, and lots of productivity apps optimize for the iPad. so it is a computer.

you can't do any productivity apps in a TV or refrigerator, don't be ridiculous.

And yet I can't even complete a simple web form without the damn page refreshing when I need to open a second tab to find information... I love my iPad for games and light browsing but I have no idea how it can replace a desktop/laptop for most people.

Rogifan · Feb 5, 2014

maflynn said:
Take out the iPad and its a vastly different picture.

Why should we take out the iPad?

ericinboston · Feb 5, 2014

Sky Blue said:
so really it's vastly the iPad with a teeny tiny bit of Mac.

..."and we'll call it PC Sales! YAY!"

Kudos for Apple selling well in the tablet space...but come on, let's be fair about the announcement(s) regarding what market areas.

Cue all the "but define Personal Computer!" yelling in 3....2...1...

gotluck · Feb 5, 2014

Polyphonie said:
TV is not a computer. While most Android tablets especially the cheaper ones are mainly consumption device, the iPad is very much a PC. Even the Surface RT/2 is more limited compared to what one can do on an iPad. For example, the iPad is still the best tablet solution for music production/creation. iOS use the same Core Audio/CoreMIDI architecture from OS X (the platform chosen by most musicians). Neither Windows RT nor Android can handle high performance audio due to high audio latency but also the lack of proper MIDI support. While Windows 8 doesn't share the limitation of RT, it lacks developers support. There's still hardly any touch enabled music production apps available for Windows 8 (after almost 2 years). While the iPad has received tremendous support from developers (Native Instruments, Steinberg, Korg, Propellerheads) from the moment the first iPad was released.

I wouldn't use music creation as the main argument that something is a PC.

Sorry I'm bitter because apple supports musicians so well on iOS , but not my purposes/ needs (workarounds galore).

Rogifan · Feb 5, 2014

maflynn said:
I see the logic, but by the same token, they're two different animals. Many consumers use the iPad for content consumption so yeah it does replace a laptop/desktop but for my needs a laptop/desktop is better

Ah, so iPad should be taken out because it doesn't meet your needs. Ok, then I think PCs should be taken out as I can't remember the last time I used mine for any extended period of time.

gnasher729 · Feb 5, 2014

Polyphonie said:
TV is not a computer. While most Android tablets especially the cheaper ones are mainly consumption device, the iPad is very much a PC.

On the other hand, if you worked at a company making LCD screens, you might be quite interested in combined numbers, because you wouldn't care whether it's a computer or a consumption device. You'd care about the square meters of LCD screens that you can sell. It all depends on the target of the statistics.

Admittedly, "PC + Tablet" only looks like a moderately interesting number to me. "PC + Tablet revenue" would be interesting.

SPUY767 · Feb 5, 2014

maflynn said:
Take out the iPad and its a vastly different picture.

This is perennially the argument, but this isn't the Microsoft Dominated PC market of the 1990s. Tablets have replaced the laptop for a great many people, and Apple turns more profit on a single iPad than most PC makers turn on ten laptops. Remember when conventional wisdom said that ~$200 netbooks were the next big thing? Those were PC's and were arguably less useful than an iPad. Why count those and not iPads?

Apple Captures 19.5% of Global PC and Tablet Market in Q4 2013

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