Apple Soars to Third Place in U.S. PC Market With 10.7% Share

[MacRumors]

Research firms Gartner and IDC today released their preliminary quarterly personal computer shipment data, offering up a picture of market performance during the second quarter of 2011. Overall, the PC industry exhibited small growth on a worldwide scale, with unit shipments growing by about 2.5% between the second quarters of 2010 and 2011. But shipments in the U.S. actually declined year-over-year by about 4-6% according to the two firms. Gartner in particular points to the iPad as having had a detrimental effect on PC shipments for the quarter.

"Given the hype around media tablets such as the iPad, retailers were very conservative in placing orders for PCs. Instead, they wanted to secure space for media tablets. Some PC vendors had to lower their inventory through promotions, while others slimmed their product lines at retailers," [Gartner analyst Mikako] Kitagawa said.

According to Gartner's report, Apple surged into third place in the U.S. market, up from fifth place a year ago and even as recently as last quarter, grabbing a 10.7% share, up significantly from an 8.5% share in the prior-year quarter.

Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-2Q11 (Gartner)

Apple's U.S. unit growth for the quarter was 8.5% year-over-year according to Gartner, well ahead of the overall U.S. industry trend of a 5.6% decline. Only Toshiba at 3.3% joined Apple among the Top 5 manufacturers increasing their shipments year-over-year.

Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q11 (Thousands of Units)

IDC's report offers a similarly rosy picture for Apple, pegging its year-over-year unit growth in the U.S. at an even more substantial 14.7% while Toshiba at 3.7% was again seen as the only other member of the U.S. Top 5 to see year-over-year growth. Combined with Acer's sales plunging by over 25%, Apple's growth puts it in third place behind market leaders HP and Dell according to IDC's data, matching the 10.7% share seen by Gartner. Overall, IDC pegs the PC industry as having shrunk by 4.2% year-over-year.

As usual, neither Gartner nor IDC covered Apple's worldwide performance for the quarter, as the company does not rank in the top five by global shipments. But given that the worldwide market experienced only about 2.5% year-over-year growth, Apple appears to be continuing to make up ground on the rest of the industry.

Article Link: Apple Soars to Third Place in U.S. PC Market With 10.7% Share

[res1233]

It just keeps going up! The future sure looks interesting. I wonder what Microsoft would do if Mac OS's market share was ever on par with Windows? It looks like a real possibility in the future if this growth continues.

[Samuriajackon]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_8 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E401 Safari/6533.18.5)

Acer lost 22%!?!?

[lifeinhd]

Were tablets counted as "PC Shipments," or just actual PCs?

[xionxiox]

I find it more impressive considering the price point of Macs. Just proves that people are fed up with poor build quality and horrid customer service

[res1233]

Originally Posted by Samuriajackon

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_8 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E401 Safari/6533.18.5)

Acer lost 22%!?!?

Ouch, I didn't even notice that. That has to hurt.

EDIT: I love macrumors so much more without ratings. If anyone feels like giving my safari extension a test drive PM me.

[drewisanapple]

10.7 share, lets celebrate with 10.7 aka Mac OS X Lion.

[ninewaters]

I log into IDC myself. I saw the World Shipments, and Apple is not even inside. This only reflects the US shipments.

Personally I worked at one of the overseas Apple reseller stores. The resellers are horrible, they are just ripping off both Apple brand and users. Especially those in Singapore.

I think Apple need to put in more effort to rein in on those resellers or simply just open one themselves. It is then Apple brand can continue to shine outside the borders of U.S.

[iRobby]

Originally Posted by lifeinhd

Were tablets counted as "PC Shipments," or just actual PCs?

Since the article states:

"But shipments in the U.S. actually declined year-over-year by about 4-6% according to the two firms. Gartner in particular points to the iPad as having had a detrimental effect on PC shipments for the quarter"

I assume that tablets were not included since it is attributing the tablets taking away from the PCs and an answer to the declines.

[NAG]

Originally Posted by Samuriajackon

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_8 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E401 Safari/6533.18.5)

Acer lost 22%!?!?

Netbook bubble burst, right?

Of course, if the reason why that bubble burst was included in Apple's numbers their percent increase would be way higher (note: 2011Q1 numbers).

[lilo777]

Originally Posted by res1233

It just keeps going up! The future sure looks interesting. I wonder what Microsoft would do if Mac OS's market share was ever on par with Windows? It looks like a real possibility in the future if this growth continues.

Most converts run Windows on their new Macs anyways. This chart shows market share of units (i.e. computers) not OS installations.

[jeremysteele]

Originally Posted by Samuriajackon

Acer lost 22%!?!?

Not too surprising.... little story: before I left my retail job a few months ago, I noticed their newer computers were becoming the most RMAed products we had. There was one day we sold two of their newer model laptops (can't remember the model number exactly.... but I think it ended in 4646? 4640? something like that), and they both were DOA. It got so crazy one day our manager called up a store down the road and they were having the same issues with the same model.

I worked there for over a year and for about 11 months we only had maybe 3 or 4 of their comps DOA, then all of this sudden... boom. Makes me wonder if they are having manufacturing issues.

[shanmugam]

$100 off @macbook, mac mini

and more realistic international price will improve the market share.

Steve is laughing to bank!

[NAG]

Originally Posted by lilo777

Most converts run Windows on their new Macs anyways. This chart shows market share of units (i.e. computers) not OS installations.

Evidence to back this up?

[lilo777]

Originally Posted by iRobby

Since the article states:

"But shipments in the U.S. actually declined year-over-year by about 4-6% according to the two firms. Gartner in particular points to the iPad as having had a detrimental effect on PC shipments for the quarter"

I assume that tablets were not included since it is attributing the tablets taking away from the PCs and an answer to the declines.

These stats are indeed a little misleading. iPad mostly affected the sales of netbooks thus cutting down market share of such manufacturers like ACER even though many netbooks are not used as real computers.

[MacNewsFix]

CONGRATS, !

Now forward to 20%.

[TMar]

Originally Posted by xionxiox

I find it more impressive considering the price point of Macs. Just proves that people are fed up with poor build quality and horrid customer service

Originally Posted by res1233

It just keeps going up! The future sure looks interesting. I wonder what Microsoft would do if Mac OS's market share was ever on par with Windows? It looks like a real possibility in the future if this growth continues.

3rd place from individual windows based PC makers. PC market share OS X vs Windows PC's 10.7% share to 89.3% share. Could you imagine Apple's net quarterly profits would be they had an even break of the market share? /shivers

I'm still kinda skeptical of those numbers as far as shipments go because they don't match Apple's own number well.

[NAG]

Originally Posted by lilo777

These stats are indeed a little misleading. iPad mostly affected the sales of netbooks thus cutting down market share of such manufacturers like ACER even though many netbooks are not used as real computers.

Same reason why Apple stock goes down when they announce record breaking quarters...Apple is evil!

[rdlink]

Originally Posted by lilo777

Most converts run Windows on their new Macs anyways. This chart shows market share of units (i.e. computers) not OS installations.

I wouldn't have bought a Mac if it weren't for Boot Camp. And I bought VMWare Fusion later on. But I rarely if ever run my Win7 on my Mac. Only for those rare programs that don't run on the Mac. I currently have one of those, and I run it about every two months.

[ahdickter]

Originally Posted by NAG

Evidence to back this up?

Me and all my friends who have macs (about 10 or so). Although the hardware is second to none, it's impossible to deny that a lot of consumer software is written in Windows-only format. Especially games.

Plus don't forget the fact that most converts are n00bs who don't know the finer points of Mac OS, and feel much more comfortable in Windows, which is why Apple probably offers Bootcamp in the first place.

Converts is what keeps Mac sales growing, and converts still like Windows.

[Consultant]

Originally Posted by xionxiox

I find it more impressive considering the price point of Macs. Just proves that people are fed up with poor build quality and horrid customer service

No wonder, because Apple products are a better value.

[winston1236]

Originally Posted by lilo777

Most converts run Windows on their new Macs anyways. This chart shows market share of units (i.e. computers) not OS installations.

im a convert and i wouldnt go back to windows if you gave me 32gb RAM with it for free. how do i factor into your opinion?

[lilo777]

Originally Posted by rdlink

I wouldn't have bought a Mac if it weren't for Boot Camp. And I bought VMWare Fusion later on. But I rarely if ever run my Win7 on my Mac. Only for those rare programs that don't run on the Mac. I currently have one of those, and I run it about every two months.

Frequency does not matter for Microsoft. The important part is that you bought Windows license.

Originally Posted by winston1236

im a convert and i wouldnt go back to windows if you gave me 32gb RAM with it for free. how do i factor into your opinion?

Maybe not for free 32GB RAM but how about switching to Windows for a reasonably priced computer WITH 32 GB RAM? (or a decent GPU )

[NAG]

Originally Posted by ahdickter

Me and all my friends who have macs (about 10 or so).

Thanks for proving my point that you have no evidence. Sorry that you made the unfortunate decision to buy Apple hardware to use as a Windows gaming machine. Kind of a waste of money there. Your post really only proves info about you and not the market at large.

[Mak47]

Originally Posted by ahdickter

Me and all my friends who have macs (about 10 or so). Although the hardware is second to none, it's impossible to deny that a lot of consumer software is written in Windows-only format. Especially games.

Plus don't forget the fact that most converts are n00bs who don't know the finer points of Mac OS, and feel much more comfortable in Windows, which is why Apple probably offers Bootcamp in the first place.

Converts is what keeps Mac sales growing, and converts still like Windows.

I'd buy that most converts run Office for Mac, but I don't believe that the majority of converts are running Windows in Boot Camp. The average consumer is not tech savvy enough to even consider that option. I also can't imagine that many are lining up to spend $100+ on a new copy of Windows 7 to get it done. I'm sure they like the option though, when I switched that was an important factor--though not necessary for most.

I finally installed Win7 on my MBP the other day, just to play a few old games I picked up at Best Buy. They of course didn't work, and after several hours of trying, I finally gave up. I gave it a test drive, just to see how I liked the OS after spending so much time exclusively Mac. I'll probably never boot up in Windows again.

All that said, who wouldn't want a computer that can run both OS's side by side? It's a great feature for those who need it.