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

[gnasher729]

..."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...

The announcement doesn't come from Apple. It seems clear that this announcement is intended to give some surprising result (Apple is leading in the global PC market ... if you redefine it slightly). Just like we always see "smartphone" market with the surprising news that Apple's share drops, and we never see the "phone" market with the much less surprising news that Apple is growing, are the "high end phone" market where Apple is growing as well.

Fairness has nothing to do with it. And Samsung isn't complaining about being ahead of HP.

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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.

We also see MacOS X compared to Windows, but never see a comparison between Microsoft computers and Apple computers, where Apple beats Microsoft probably 17 million to zero.

Now being totally curious, can anyone find a statistic who sells more keyboards and mice? Apple or Microsoft?

 

[jayducharme]

Tablets have replaced the laptop for a great many people

What I'm curious about is how Steve Jobs saw this coming so many years ago. He declared a post-PC world when the original iPad launched, and at the time I couldn't understand what he was saying. But for a vast number of people, a tablet now does everything they would usually do on a "computer". What's the point of getting a multi-core desktop (or laptop) when all you're going to do is surf the Net, check Facebook and send a few e-mails? For people who need a computer for more traditional tasks, those are still available and will be for a long time to come. But for a majority of people, a tablet seems to be fine.

 

[ericinboston]

The announcement doesn't come from Apple. ...

I know...I should have mentioned that. But so many "reports" (not just about Apple) are biased/skewed unless you dig deeper into the definitions or numbers. This is also how advertising works.

 

[himanshumodi]

Whoever prepared this chart needs to attend a Marketing 101 class. What's the point of projecting anyone as a leader like this? Is apple supposed to clap hands and revel at their leadership in this "tablet + desktop/laptop" cateogry? First of all, both these things, while replaceable for some home users, are still very separate categories. So marketshare report would have to be separate. If a meaningful analysis has to be done... a segmentation of the market share across different categories... home users, office users, students, etc... would be much more reasonable.

 

[H2SO4]

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

No I like it. What they've done is let statistics talk for them. What they should have done is split each bar into colours so that we can see how much of each does what. That's a real picture of how things are.
I have an iPad, iPhone and Mac. The iDevices can't even come close for anything except sending mails and browsing lightly.

 

[Lesser Evets]

I thought Apple was doomed. ...this could have been posted in 1983, 1987, 1996, 2001 (and every year after).

 

[Mockenrue]

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.

I put in the refrigerator analogy to underscore that my whole post was tongue-in-cheek, not meant as analysis. That said, more and more young people (especially college students) are using a laptop or tablet as a primary TV, so those lines could continue to blur too.

 

[melendezest]

Why are so many people still confused about the whole tablet vs PC thing?

The graph addresses PC and tablet sales. People replace PCs with tablets. I think the separation is not necessary: a tablet (especially the iPad) is a PC. I actually believe tablets to be the more "personal" computer of all.

At this point, you just have levels of power. Not everyone needs the huge amount of power a Mac Pro offers. That does not imply that less powerful computers are not PCs. The sales trends show that for what most people used a PC for, the iPad (and the like) is replacing it. We simply now have multiple form factors that enable us to choose the right PC for our needs.

PCs are vehicles. They get us from point A to point B. Sometimes you need a full-size pickup truck, other times a bike will do.

The iPad (and the modern tablet) is a PC, period. We need to stop fussing over the semantics of it all.

 

[whooleytoo]

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

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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

It's a pretty tall order, expecting them to do much more. Neither the iPhone nor the iPad were the first of their kind, but both gave their respective industries a massive shake-up and triggered significant growth.

It's funny the standard to which we hold Apple. 'They're slipping, they haven't revolutionised an industry in the last few years'.

On your second point, I agree. For some people an iPad might be a laptop replacement, but certainly not for me. It's a "very nice to have" device along with my laptop, but if I had to choose one I couldn't work without the laptop.

 

[bawbac]

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

I agree that the majority of those who are replacing their laptops/desktops with an iPad/tablet mainly used them for content consumption and not any productivity. Those who need productivity will still prefer a laptop/desktop due to speed, performance, reliability and lets not forgot, a keyboard.

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.

iPad hardware is powerful in respect to past technology but it's iOS has a long ways to go to mature for business productivity and proven to be stable.

The crashing/freezing issues with apps on the iPad remind me of the growing pains Windows 95 went through.
iOS7 actually made crashing/freezing apps worse.


The reality is, the iPad/tablet's main use is content consumption and it still has issues(Safari, Mail, Web Apps crashing/freezing) doing that very specific task.

 

[melendezest]

No I like it. What they've done is let statistics talk for them. What they should have done is split each bar into colours so that we can see how much of each does what. That's a real picture of how things are.
I have an iPad, iPhone and Mac. The iDevices can't even come close for anything except sending mails and browsing lightly.

You can't realistically use a two-seater coupe when you need to haul 800lbs of fruit from point a to b.

But it'll use less gas and get you there faster if you're just taking the kid to school.

 

[melendezest]

What I'm curious about is how Steve Jobs saw this coming so many years ago. He declared a post-PC world when the original iPad launched, and at the time I couldn't understand what he was saying. But for a vast number of people, a tablet now does everything they would usually do on a "computer". What's the point of getting a multi-core desktop (or laptop) when all you're going to do is surf the Net, check Facebook and send a few e-mails? For people who need a computer for more traditional tasks, those are still available and will be for a long time to come. But for a majority of people, a tablet seems to be fine.

Exactly. Tablets didn't exist (in this current form) until the iPad, so folks had no choice but to get a full-blown, high-horsepower PC to keep the family pics, surf the Net and take care of email.

Steve really was brilliant; he focused on what most people used a PC for and provided a better solution to get there. Tablets existed before, but they were still full-blown, high horsepower, confusing messes in a hand-held (with stylus) format. Ugh.

If all my Macs took a dump,now, I could still get everything I need to do (both at work and home) done with my iPad 1, an Internet connection, and an SSH client.

Work and family email, Keynote presentations, document creation and submission, remote system administration, remote application installations, watch a movie, read comics, listen to music while browsing family photos, play a game here and there, record a full original rock song... The list goes on and on and on...

Again, all that with the original iPad!

Now, if I needed to trans-code GBs of video....that's another story.

 

[Ted13]

but for my needs a laptop/desktop is better

And therefore any market share survey should be grouped according to your needs :roll eyes:

There is a reason desktop PC sales are in free fall -- tablets. Pretending that tablets are not being bought instead of new PCs is just silly.

 

[iLondoner]

Agree with the comments about the wacky non-sense in combining iPads with PCs. The iPad is a device, basically a big iPhone. No filing system, single user, no multiple windows...

On the other hand I would be inclined to include Microsoft Surface. Hey ho.

What I'd find far more interesting is statistics on corporate vs small business vs home purchasing. Lumping everything together makes it impossible to understand trends. I think most tablet sales within corporates are additional bits of kit, you'd have to be a pretty numpty type of user to replace a corporate PC with a tablet.

 

[M-O]

Take out the iPad and its a vastly different picture.

take out PCs and it looks pretty dismal for anyone other than Apple.

 

[TallManNY]

What I'm curious about is how Steve Jobs saw this coming so many years ago. He declared a post-PC world when the original iPad launched, and at the time I couldn't understand what he was saying. But for a vast number of people, a tablet now does everything they would usually do on a "computer". What's the point of getting a multi-core desktop (or laptop) when all you're going to do is surf the Net, check Facebook and send a few e-mails? For people who need a computer for more traditional tasks, those are still available and will be for a long time to come. But for a majority of people, a tablet seems to be fine.

It isn't just buy or not buy issue. It is becoming a post-PC world when you spend time with your tablet even if you have a great PC sitting on your desk. There is a mind share, time share thing going on here. I think we are long way away from a middle class house not having some form of laptop or desktop in the house. In fact, I suspect they will have two or more. But they will also have tablets. And eventually they will spend more time with the tablets than with the desktops. Folks already spend more time with their phones than either PCs or tablets (not counting work time). And in the US, that time is usually spent with an iPhone.

 

[F apple FE]

Aggregating tablets with PCs is pretty stupid. Tablets are very much different from PCs (and ESPECIALLY iPads which lack true multitasking, mouse support, user manipulable file system, USB Host capability and multi-accounts, not to mention their very limited RAM...).

The fact that somebody (and these graphs don't tell us how many...) may buy a tablet instead of a PC doesn't mean all that much since somebody else may be buying a smartphone instead of a tablet and/or a PC and those same somebodies may be doing so because they already have an older tablet/PC...

A further consideration to make is that aside from display size, tablets and smartphones can do the same things and some tablets can even make phone calls and somebody is replacing *everything* with those things (for example, my GF had a very old, hand-me-down laptop, she just binned it, sold her cheap Android smartphone and bought a FonePad 7 with which she is very happily doing everything she was doing before with a PC and a smartphone, and doing it better).

I think that you either do the sane thing and consider separately PCs and tablets or you lump together PCs, tablets AND smartphones.

BTW, hook up an Android smartphone to a monitor, connect a mouse and a keyboard, and you have a PC...

With their real multitasking, mouse support (Bluetooth, wired and even wireless ones with proprietary dongles), user manipulable file system, USB Host capability (you can connect hard disks, pen drives, USB hubs, wired keyboard and mouses and so on), their usually generous amount of RAM and even Adobe Flash, they are very much actual PCs!! iPads are toys in comparison.

 

[acslater017]

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...

I get that you're trying to make a point, but it's a weak argument. For everyday people, tablets and PCs have a huge amount of functional overlap: email, social media, web browsing, media consumption, etc. People do not commonly do those things on their television.

So while iPads and Macs are very different from a technical standpoint, there is enough USAGE overlap that in some cases, it makes sense to combine their unit sales. Ask anybody whose living depends on selling large amounts of low-level PCs (not gaming rigs) and see if tablets don't legitimately enter the picture!

 

[osofast240sx]

I agree that the majority of those who are replacing their laptops/desktops with an iPad/tablet mainly used them for content consumption and not any productivity. Those who need productivity will still prefer a laptop/desktop due to speed, performance, reliability and lets not forgot, a keyboard.




iPad hardware is powerful in respect to past technology but it's iOS has a long ways to go to mature for business productivity and proven to be stable.

The crashing/freezing issues with apps on the iPad remind me of the growing pains Windows 95 went through.
iOS7 actually made crashing/freezing apps worse.


The reality is, the iPad/tablet's main use is content consumption and it still has issues(Safari, Mail, Web Apps crashing/freezing) doing that very specific task.

Why is it so hard to believe that a tablet can be used for real work? Ironically I do more banking on my iPhone and my iPad. I just think people fail to realize especially on this forum that tablets are a very powerful computer. Sure if you compare an iPad air to a 2013 MacBook Pro is no comparison but you can compare the iPad air to a 2008 MacBook Pro. A tablet is the very definition of a PC

 

[acslater017]

Aggregating tablets with PCs is pretty stupid. Tablets are very much different from PCs (and ESPECIALLY iPads which lack true multitasking, mouse support, user manipulable file system, USB Host capability and multi-accounts, not to mention their very limited RAM...).

You're looking at it from a technical standpoint, not a market standpoint. iPads, or tablets generically, successfully accomplish 90% of what 90% of people do during their "computer" time. Look up any recent PC sales report, and it's hard to argue that tablets aren't eating into traditional computer sales.

That's not to say someone completely, permanently forgoes buying a PC for tablets. But perhaps they slow their upgrade cycle to 5 years rather than 3 years.

 

[the8thark]

Take out the iPad and its a vastly different picture.

Why? The iPad is a PC, just in a different form? I think comparing them together is the right way to go.

 

[bawbac]

Exactly. Tablets didn't exist (in this current form) until the iPad, so folks had no choice but to get a full-blown, high-horsepower PC to keep the family pics, surf the Net and take care of email.

How quickly people forgot about the netbook/Atom CPU and Celeron CPU's that were targeted for those specific consumers.
These were usually at the $300 price point back in 2007.

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Why? The iPad is a PC, just in a different form? I think comparing them together is the right way to go.

Can I connect my USB drive to it to download files?
How about connect an SD disk just download photo's from my camera?
Can I burn mp3's from a CD?
Can I watch DVD's?

 

[F apple FE]

You're looking at it from a technical standpoint, not a market standpoint. iPads, or tablets generically, successfully accomplish 90% of what 90% of people do during their "computer" time. Look up any recent PC sales report, and it's hard to argue that tablets aren't eating into traditional computer sales.

That's not to say someone completely, permanently forgoes buying a PC for tablets. But perhaps they slow their upgrade cycle to 5 years rather than 3 years.

My point was that smartphones ALSO are eating into the PC market.

Given what a lot of people do on their PCs, tablets and smartphones they ALL overlap and smartphones and tablets are way more similar to each other than to a PC in a lot of ways so you either separate PCs and tablets or you include smartphones in that weird and stupid PC+tablets category.

As an example, for a lot of folks in emerging markets, cheap smartphones do it all and they are not going to buy cheap tablets or cheap PCs because those smartphones fulfill all of their basic needs (email, social, IM, some browsing, some media consumption).
This is one of the reasons for the exploding "phablet" category. It is in fact expanding not only at the top but also at the lower price brackets.

 

[Mockenrue]

So while iPads and Macs are very different from a technical standpoint, there is enough USAGE overlap that in some cases, it makes sense to combine their unit sales.

The iPad has more usage overlap with the iPhone than it does with a Mac: same processor, same OS, universal app packages, similar form factor, etc. If usage overlap drove metrics, we'd have to include smart phones in the category since they are just as much of a computer as the iPad.

[edit: I just saw F apple FE make the same point above. If it's about marketing, iPad should be separate from Mac. If it's usage/technical, then the segment should include iPhone.]

 

[melendezest]

How quickly people forgot about the netbook/Atom CPU and Celeron CPU's that were targeted for those specific consumers.
These were usually at the $300 price point back in 2007.

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Can I connect my USB drive to it to download files?
How about connect an SD disk just download photo's from my camera?
Can I burn mp3's from a CD?
Can I watch DVD's?

The problem with the netbook was the fact that it was the same-old form factor shrunk down to uncomfortable levels, with the same (relatively cumbersome) internal software infrastructure.

It's not just what the device can do. It's all about the how you do it. The iPhone changed the "how" for cell phones. The iPad did the same for tablets (prior to it) and PCs.

Tablets are not meant to fill all needs. Netbooks, even some desktops couldn't do this either. Doesn't mean they're not PCs.

Today, you get to pick the right PC for the job, and are not stuck with the one size fit all solution we had to endure before.

"Can I connect my USB drive to it to download files?" -Welcome to cloud computing and the wireless era, although you can on some devices (camera connection kit?)

"How about connect an SD disk just download photo's from my camera?" -See previous

"Can I burn mp3's from a CD?" -Think "floppy disk". Most don't need to do this on their PC. There are alternatives to this.

"Can I watch DVD's?" -Again, think "floppy disk." You don't watch DVD's, you watch the content in it. There are alternatives to this too.

Device sales, and the decline of "traditional PC" sales back this up. Most people's needs have changed. A rigid definition of what makes a PC is pointless. Why people bought PCs is more relevant, and is the reason why Apple's targeted strike is paying off, literally.

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The iPad has more usage overlap with the iPhone than it does with a Mac: same processor, same OS, universal app packages, similar form factor, etc. If usage overlap drove metrics, we'd have to include smart phones in the category since they are just as much of a computer as the iPad.

[edit: I just saw F apple FE make the same point above. If it's about marketing, iPad should be separate from Mac. If it's usage/technical, then the segment should include iPhone.]

Agreed. I have heard of CEOs saying they run their company from their phone. They're all now (International) Business Machines.

It's amazing the power (and freedom) we now wield in our pocket. I think people take it for granted far too often, and fail to recognize its impact in the process.