PC shipments continue to shrink as consumers embrace tablets like Apple's iPad
While research firms Gartner and IDC have very different projections on how Apple's Mac lineup performed in the holiday quarter, both sides can agree on one thing: PC shipments continued to shrink over the holidays, as consumers once again opted for tablets over traditional computers.
HP remains a leader in the shrinking traditional PC market.
This week IDC and Gartner both reported year-over-year declines in PC shipments for the just-concluded December quarter. Wall Street analysts reacted on Friday, noting that market declines are largely attributable to consumers who have been buying tablets, such as Apple's market leading iPad, rather than upgrading their outdated PCs.
"In the U.S. and Europe, tablets were one of the hottest holiday items, and in emerging markets, consumers are increasingly choosing tablets as their computing device, impacting PC sales," Maynard Um of Wells Fargo said in a note to investors provided to AppleInsider. "We believe the PC industry needs to innovate more aggressively in terms of capabilities and/or software beyond form factor changes to be competitive in the consumer market."
Um said shipment declines were moderated because of some strength in the corporate sector. In particular, some businesses are said to be upgrading from Microsoft's Windows XP operating system ahead of support being discontinued in April 2014.
He believes enterprise PC sales may also have benefitted from companies going through a "year-end budget flush," particularly in Europe. And he cited an improving economy and favorable currency in Japan as helping to drive corporate PC upgrades.
Still, IDC reported that total worldwide PC shipments were off 5.6 percent year over year in the December quarter, while Gartner's estimates saw a 6.9 percent year over year decline in the same three-month period. Um felt those results were largely in line with market expectations, though Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley said she viewed IDC's 5.6 percent estimate as "slightly better" than she expected.
Like Um, Huberty also latched onto the fact that consumer PC demand remains weak, and is the primary cause for continuing market decline. Huberty also noted that IDC cited Lenovo and Samsung seeing strong growth for low-cost notebooks based on the Google Chrome operating system, though she feels Chromebook shipments "remain too strong to materially impact overall results."
While IDC and Gartner did agree on overall market trends, the two research firms had wildly different assumptions on Apple's domestic Mac sales for the quarter. While Gartner projected that Apple saw a massive 28.5 percent year over year spike in U.S. shipments, IDC instead forecast that Mac sales dropped 5.7 percent for the quarter in America.
Apple will report total worldwide Mac sales later this month, during the company's quarterly earnings report on Jan. 27. However, the discrepancy between IDC and Gartner's domestic estimates may not be resolved, as Apple does not traditionally break down sales of its products on a country-by-country basis, citing competitive reasons.
HP remains a leader in the shrinking traditional PC market.
This week IDC and Gartner both reported year-over-year declines in PC shipments for the just-concluded December quarter. Wall Street analysts reacted on Friday, noting that market declines are largely attributable to consumers who have been buying tablets, such as Apple's market leading iPad, rather than upgrading their outdated PCs.
"In the U.S. and Europe, tablets were one of the hottest holiday items, and in emerging markets, consumers are increasingly choosing tablets as their computing device, impacting PC sales," Maynard Um of Wells Fargo said in a note to investors provided to AppleInsider. "We believe the PC industry needs to innovate more aggressively in terms of capabilities and/or software beyond form factor changes to be competitive in the consumer market."
Um said shipment declines were moderated because of some strength in the corporate sector. In particular, some businesses are said to be upgrading from Microsoft's Windows XP operating system ahead of support being discontinued in April 2014.
He believes enterprise PC sales may also have benefitted from companies going through a "year-end budget flush," particularly in Europe. And he cited an improving economy and favorable currency in Japan as helping to drive corporate PC upgrades.
Still, IDC reported that total worldwide PC shipments were off 5.6 percent year over year in the December quarter, while Gartner's estimates saw a 6.9 percent year over year decline in the same three-month period. Um felt those results were largely in line with market expectations, though Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley said she viewed IDC's 5.6 percent estimate as "slightly better" than she expected.
Like Um, Huberty also latched onto the fact that consumer PC demand remains weak, and is the primary cause for continuing market decline. Huberty also noted that IDC cited Lenovo and Samsung seeing strong growth for low-cost notebooks based on the Google Chrome operating system, though she feels Chromebook shipments "remain too strong to materially impact overall results."
While IDC and Gartner did agree on overall market trends, the two research firms had wildly different assumptions on Apple's domestic Mac sales for the quarter. While Gartner projected that Apple saw a massive 28.5 percent year over year spike in U.S. shipments, IDC instead forecast that Mac sales dropped 5.7 percent for the quarter in America.
Apple will report total worldwide Mac sales later this month, during the company's quarterly earnings report on Jan. 27. However, the discrepancy between IDC and Gartner's domestic estimates may not be resolved, as Apple does not traditionally break down sales of its products on a country-by-country basis, citing competitive reasons.
Comments
We're getting very close to not needing a PC/laptop.
My GF just got a new iPad.
Over the holidays, I revamped all her work spreadsheets from excel (Ugh!) to Numbers.
I simplified and standardized them, added formulas, made them all the same orientation, fonts, titles, added colors, etc. Made them all fit on one page. All in Numbers.
I did that on my iMac and now she has them all in iCloud (and DropBox) and on her new iPhone 5c and on her work PC (iCloud). She has to use her work Windows PC (Ugh!) b/c the d**kh**d's in IT won't let her connect her iPad or iPhone to their WiFi! (Ugh!)
She loves how professional they look compared to excel. And how easy it is to keep them all sync'd automatically. Also, she had a devil of a time just getting them to print in excel. It seems they wouldn't print the same way twice, especially when she had to use diff. printers!
She's really impressed she doesn't have to hit "Save" anymore (Something she often forgot to do). But most of all she likes how "pretty" they are! Chicks!
She says, she actually enjoys updating them.
She's proud to share them with her co-workers. A couple of steps to print or a couple of steps to email. They call them her "fancy" reports!
What Apple has done with the iWork suite is nothing short of brilliant.
She wanted a BT Keyboard b/c she writes a lot of emails. I'm not a big fan of keyboards for iPads. I prefer it "naked." But I have to admit, it's pretty impressive. We got her a logitech folio with a white "rubbery" KB. And it works really well.
She says it's the best "laptop" she's ever had!
Best
We are getting very close to not needing a PC/laptop.
...
Agreed... MS office is getting long in the tooth and it is difficult to change it's architecture and UI.
Apple's iWork has a much nicer UI and modern architecture.
Sorry, but it is impossible to do a real spreadsheet on the iPad. I haven't used Numbers on a Mac, hopefully it works better there. Excel is still the gold standard and if pretty is important it's not that hard to make "pretty" charts. I dislike Microsofts tinkering with the interface though, but then Apple did the same thing with IOS7. I dislike Windows, especially Win8 and its stupid charm bar. It might work with a touch interface but is horrible with a mouse. I do wonder how much of the market decline and the switch to Apple is due to people avoiding Win8.
I agree tjwal...Numbers is not for the Pro's as far as spreadsheets go, or so I've read. (I'm not a spreadsheet pro.)
But once they are set-up, (iMac) they're pretty easy to keep updated on the iPad. And it forces you to keep things simple.
I think most average users find excel unnecessarily difficult to use, and they often don't get to making them look pretty. Or even printed in the "center of the page," for that matter!
I'm pretty adept, for a casual user, but I find excel, and all MS sw from Hotmail (back in the day) to excel, unintuitive and clumsy. Often times it would take me so many diff. attempts to fix something, I couldn't remember what I did to fix it!
I remember talking to our IT people at work at how great Apple's were. I used the only one in our two buildings. They looked at me like I was speaking Chinese! These guys preferred to use the Command line to print something!
Best.
P.S. It was Macintosh Classic with Claris (or was it AppleWorks?). It had a tiny screen and I was using it to do 11x17 Flow Charts/reports. I made quite an impression on the executive staff and the Director. She wanted to look at my reports first and spent the most time on them. I ended up working for her specifically, going around to different departments, putting out "fires!" Thanks SJ!
Well, that’s wrong.
Mmm… Chromebook nowhere to go but nowhere!
Auto generated by AI forum software!
Well, that’s wrong.
You didn't call him a "moron," Skil.
In fact, you haven't called someone a moron or told them to "shut up" for a while now.
Everyday is a "new record!"
Good job!
Best.
Sorry, but it is impossible to do a real spreadsheet on the iPad. I haven't used Numbers on a Mac, hopefully it works better there. Excel is still the gold standard and if pretty is important it's not that hard to make "pretty" charts. I dislike Microsofts tinkering with the interface though, but then Apple did the same thing with IOS7. I dislike Windows, especially Win8 and its stupid charm bar. It might work with a touch interface but is horrible with a mouse. I do wonder how much of the market decline and the switch to Apple is due to people avoiding Win8.
Go through the tutorial with an open mind.
Let go of the old Lotus 123 and Microsoft Excel paradigm for a moment and discover what spreadsheets can really do.
You will be pleasantly surprise with what you can do on an iPhone. It's really amazing.
We'll find out who's more accurate when Apple announces quarterly results.
Go through the tutorial with an open mind.
Let go of the old Lotus 123 and Microsoft Excel paradigm for a moment and discover what spreadsheets can really do.
You will be pleasantly surprise with what you can do on an iPhone. It's really amazing.
I agree, Applesauce.
I know a lot people think that the new iWork is a step backwards. But I think the ease of use and the syncing between all devices is just amazing!
Plus iWork keeps you in Apple "eco-system!" Which makes emailing, printing, sharing, saving, accessing, updating, etc., etc., so, so easy!
Best.
Here’s an idea, just stop being an idiot. If you can’t comprehend why I tell certain accounts to shut up and go away, should you real be commenting on the happening thereof at all?
“A while now,” by the way, is yesterday. You’d do well to actually fight against the troll accounts instead of this nonsense.
Would China Mobile channel fill be in this upcoming quarterly or finalized too late and appearing in the next?
Go through the tutorial with an open mind.
Let go of the old Lotus 123 and Microsoft Excel paradigm for a moment and discover what spreadsheets can really do.
You will be pleasantly surprise with what you can do on an iPhone. It's really amazing.
I have set up a couple of spreadsheets on an iPad. If you have more than a couple of dozen numbers to deal with you will want a keypad and a bigger display.I'm not a power user but even my small spreadsheets are bigger than that.
Here’s an idea, just stop being an idiot. If you can’t comprehend why I tell certain accounts to shut up and go away, should you real be commenting on the happening thereof at all?
“A while now,” by the way, is yesterday. You’d do well to actually fight against the troll accounts instead of this nonsense.
Idiot?
Well, that’s wrong.
I suppose it all depends on what one thinks of as a "proper" spreadsheet. For my analytical work Numbers does not cover many features that I actually need and use. The latest dumbed down update has certainly not helped matters.
As a product, when used for genuine professional use Excel is a mightily powerful tool and MS actually deserves credit for it.
Excel is not designed for the home user who simply wants to balance their cheque book or to create a shopping list, sadly most people use it for "work" like this.
Numbers on the Mac is fine, it covers the basics and for most people that is all they will ever need. On the iPad it's genuinely impressive, but is not and likely never will be a true excel replacement.
Mmm… Chromebook nowhere to go but nowhere!
Chromebook accounted for 21% of notebook sales last year.
Sure... How about a link to a reliable/verifiable source of sell-through to end users!
Without that, my SWAG opinion is as good/bad as anyone else's!
Here' some links that give some insight into how to evaluate the "numbers" that seem to tell whatever story that suits the agenda of the author:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/07/android-market-share-smartphone-users-google-apple
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/09/market-share-smartphones-iphone-android-windows
Ebook readers are "media tablets".
Inexpensive tablets that only play audio and video media are "media tablets".
But tablets like the iPad, full-Android tablets, and Microsoft Surface, as NOT "media tablets"!
Those tablets are full Personal Computers because they have the same productivity capabilities as desktop and notebook PCs. They should be included in the calculations.
Even the fact that people are buying tablets as replacements for notebook PCs, should make that apparent. Sales of notebook PCs have been steadily declining over the past few years (after a long run of annual increases), while sales of tablets have been steadily increasing.
A "PC" is not dependent on what operating system it runs, but on its capabilities as a personal computer.
Initially, Personal Computers ran DOS-type operating systems (MS-DOS, Apple-DOS, etc.) run by command line.
Did we disqualify desktop computers as PC's when they ran new GUI operating systems? Nope!
Did we disqualify notebook PCs, because they were not the desktop PCs that we were used to, and were less powerful than desktops? Nope.
What we are seeing now with tablets is the next generation of Personal Computers. Anyone who cannot see the obvious is living in denial.