Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-3Q10 (Gartner)
Research firm Gartner today issued a preliminary report detailing U.S. and worldwide PC shipments for the third quarter of 2010, showing sales growth of Apple's Mac product outpacing that of the industry as a whole and showing Apple surpassing 10% share of the market.
According to Gartner's report, Apple placed fourth among U.S. computer shipments with a 10.4% market share on unit growth of 13.7% over the year-ago quarter. The performance fell just short of Acer's third place showing at 10.5% and was up from the previous quarter's 9.8% and from 9.3% in the year-ago quarter.Apple had another strong quarter. Increasing traffic to Apple, associated with the iPad release (iPads are not included in Gartner's PC shipment statistics), as well as iMac and Mac Pro refreshes, contributed to the growth.
Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q10 (Thousands of Units)
Overall, Gartner saw only a 2.2% gain in U.S. PC shipments over the year-ago quarter, citing weakness in consumer PC demand fostered in part by the iPad delaying planned PC purchases.
Despite Apple's strong performance in the U.S., the company was unable to break into the top five computer manufacturers on a worldwide basis, where Asus and Toshiba battled over the fourth and fifth spots at 5.4% and 5.3% shares respectively."Media tablet hype around devices such as the iPad has also affected consumer notebook growth by delaying some PC purchases, especially in the U.S. consumer market. Media tablets don't replace primary PCs, but they affect PC purchases in many ways," Ms. Kitagawa said. "At this stage, hype around media tablets has led consumers and the channels to take a 'wait and see' approach to buying a new device."
Article Link: Apple's Share of Computer Sales Surpasses 10% in U.S.