iPad launches Apple to 3rd place in mobile PC market share

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Apple's market share as a mobile PC vendor has surged along with the launch of iPad, breaking 200% year over year growth while vaulting the company from seventh to third place in global portable computing.



As noted in a report by Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune, Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore has issued a note to clients outlining Apple's dramatic growth in portable computing, greatly accelerated by brisk iPad sales.



Even without counting iPad sales, Apple's growth in Mac notebooks has propelled it ahead of Dell, HP, Lenovo to achieve the second fastest rate of growth among mobile PC vendors behind netbook maker Acer. Adding in iPad, Apple leaps well above all rivals by a huge margin.



In terms of actual unit sales, Apple's market share in portable PCs jumped in the second quarter of 2010 from just over 5 percent (when only counting Macs) to more than 12 percent of the global market for mobile PCs, outpacing ASUS, Toshiba, Lenovo and Acer to take the third place spot behind HP and Dell in volume sales.



"Our retail checks suggest this share shift continues in July," Whitmore wrote, "where the iPad is directly cannibalizing demand for other vendors' notebook products. Remarkably, Apple's traditional MacBook business posted accelerated unit growth on a Y/Y basis in 2Q despite the launch of the iPad while every other Top 5 vendor slowed."









iPad as a PC



IDC, Gartner and other firms that track PC market share were quick to add tablets and then limited duty netbooks to their PC sales figures, moves that helped knock down Apple's global market share figures as millions of the low-cost mini-laptops shipped to consumers. However, the firms are not yet counting iPad in their mobile PC numbers.



Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer didn't hesitate to refer to Apple's iPad as a PC, however. "Of course it is. It's a different form factor of PC," Ballmer told told interviewer Walt Mossberg when asked if he considered Apple's iPad to be a PC. At the time, Ballmer's remarks suggested that the PC market would continue move toward more mobile form factors such as his own company's State PC designs



Ballmer later expressed concern about the volume of iPads Apple had sold, while indicating that Microsoft wanted to do to tablets what it did to netbooks: push sales back into the Windows fold. Microsoft hasn't been able to garner much interest in its existing Windows-based tablet products however.



iPad killed the Slate PC



Ballmer consistently refers to the next generation of tablets as "slate PCs," the term he used to promote a now canceled product with HP at the January CES event. The rebranding appeared intended to ditch the connotation of failure attached to "Tablet PCs," the company's name for the mobile tablet form factor that Microsoft's Bill Gates had pushed throughout the previous decade.



Apple's iPad instantly became the product to copy after its wildly successful launch this spring. HP is now apparently seeking to brand its upcoming webOS tablet the PalmPad, while RIM is similarly borrowing Apple's product name to deliver a BlackPad.



Ballmer's company similarly sought to hold onto mindshare among MP3 players earlier in the decade by calling them "Portable Media Players," while Apple vacuumed up all attention in the category with its iPod brand. Microsoft finally conceded Apple's leadership position when it relented and used the term "podcasts" within its own media playback software.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    tsadlertsadler Posts: 13member
    Cool!
  • Reply 2 of 29
    "The rebranding appeared intended to ditch the connotation of failure attached to "Tablet PCs," the company's name for the mobile tablet form factor that Microsoft's Bill Gates had pushed throughout the previous decade."





    That's what airlines used to do after a crash....change their names! Piedmont, Allegheny Air, US Air
  • Reply 3 of 29
    smiles77smiles77 Posts: 668member
    This could be very interesting... I like referencing the iPad as a computer. It is just as much a portable computer as a netbook, and therefore should be counted as a computer. This means Apple will be moving up the ladder very quickly as far as unit shipments go, and will still give excellent profit margins, which is where the real metrics are.
  • Reply 4 of 29
    coolcatcoolcat Posts: 156member
    Ballmer has got to be the BIGGEST F*CKING CEO on the planet....he'll say anything to try and knock Apple down. He's just upset and jealous that his POS company can't come up with something original that customers will want to buy. Sure they'll come out with a "slate" huh? It's a f*cking tablet you fat, greasy bald monkey! The "slate" will fail miserably just like everything else they try and copy outside Window's. Can we say Zune? Tablet PC's of the early 2000's?
  • Reply 5 of 29
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    This all goes to show how archaic these categories have become. If Apple has succeeded in anything with the iPad, it's in breaking down the old definitions of what a PC should be. It's about time.
  • Reply 6 of 29
    I would also agree that the iPad is a mobile computing device. So far it looks like Apple is setting the stage with the OS. I have seen a number of prototypes drop Windows in favor of more mobile OS's like Android or WebOs. I think with that in mind the market will be forced to recognize these devices as mobile computers.
  • Reply 7 of 29
    cycomikocycomiko Posts: 716member
    When the ipad can do the same thing as a macbook, then it deserves to be on a notebook chart. He may as well thrown the iphone in as well.
  • Reply 8 of 29
    pokepoke Posts: 506member
    I think the only thing that could rule it out of the "portable computer" category is size. But if they're going to include netbooks they have to include iPads. The idea that the iPad "can't do" the same things as a "real computer" is nonsense and it's hard to believe people are still clinging to it.
  • Reply 9 of 29
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    "Apple's iPad instantly became the product to copy" Kind of like everything else Apple comes up with.
  • Reply 10 of 29
    bartfatbartfat Posts: 434member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    "Apple's iPad instantly became the product to copy" Kind of like everything else Apple comes up with.



    That's not quite true back in 2003, when they released the G4 Cube But yes, it's a distant memory now
  • Reply 11 of 29
    luisdiasluisdias Posts: 277member
    Quote:

    When the ipad can do the same thing as a macbook, then it deserves to be on a notebook chart. He may as well thrown the iphone in as well.



    and ipods. nano as well, why not? it gives video and stuff
  • Reply 12 of 29
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bartfat View Post


    That's not quite true back in 2003, when they released the G4 Cube But yes, it's a distant memory now



    You see echoes of the Cube in the Mac Mini and the similar form-factor of the Airport Extreme, Time Capsule and Apple TV. So it's not really a distant memory - unless you have memory issues - or weren't alive/aware back then. And that same form-factor was echoed by Acer in the Acer AspireRevo (a Mini propped up on it's side), same with the Asus eeBox, Dell Inspiron Zino, and so on. The Cube itself was cool design-wise, just had some issues and the rest we know. There were much more serious and much more flawed designs prior to that, that were truly failures. But interestingly for a time Apple prior to The Resurrection was trying to emulate the PC boxes in order to blend in more with what was fast becoming the "standard" PC business design. That was a dark period for Apple, renowned for beige-ness and other *shudder* things. No, none of that is distant memory.
  • Reply 13 of 29
    luisdiasluisdias Posts: 277member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by poke View Post


    I think the only thing that could rule it out of the "portable computer" category is size. But if they're going to include netbooks they have to include iPads. The idea that the iPad "can't do" the same things as a "real computer" is nonsense and it's hard to believe people are still clinging to it.



    So you can't think of a single thing that a notebook can do that an iPad cant?



    Because I can think of a lot.
  • Reply 14 of 29
    sheffsheff Posts: 1,407member
    As most of You know "Slate" was apple's name for the iPad before HP stole it to name their non existant product that is now cancelled. So when Ballmer refers to Tablet PCs as Slates he is talking about the iPad in a way.



    That said it is pretty interesting that apple is beating netbook sales while still increasing their Macbook sales as well. It was a good strategy to put a mobile OS that could do enough to compete with cheap netbooks, but not enough to totally replace a laptop. When MS puts Win7 into tablets some time in the next 1-10 years it will cannibalize their laptop and netbook sales, because it will simply be a touch screen laptop.



    If the numbers are true and remain for a few quarters then apple really did invent a new, separate and profitable set of mobile devices between a smartphone and a laptop. And there I was thinking it would be a very niche product.
  • Reply 15 of 29
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by LuisDias View Post


    So you can't think of a single thing that a notebook can do that an iPad cant?



    Because I can think of a lot.



    Then you would be mistaken.



    The iPad is not merely another fun new gadget.



    It's the future. Of Apple, of the industry, of all humanity. It is the second coming of Jesus of Nazareth. It's even more important than the Pet Rock.



    If you fail to recognize this, it is YOU who has failed.



    Look up. Note what site you're in.....
  • Reply 16 of 29
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sheff View Post


    And there I was thinking it would be a very niche product.



    So was I. Still can't believe people flock to buy it, though I think it's perfect for my wife who just want something mobile to check e-mail.
  • Reply 17 of 29
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RationalTroll View Post


    Then you would be mistaken.



    The iPad is not merely another fun new gadget.



    It's the future. Of Apple, of the industry, of all humanity. It is the second coming of Jesus of Nazareth. It's even more important than the Pet Rock.



    If you fail to recognize this, it is YOU who has failed.



    Look up. Note what site you're in.....



    An inability to see what is actually happening is always a failure.
  • Reply 18 of 29
    drdbdrdb Posts: 99member
    They were always going to be called pads because that's what they were called in Star Trek and that's a show from the future.
  • Reply 19 of 29
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by drdb View Post


    They were always going to be called pads because that's what they were called in Star Trek and that's a show from the future.



    Huh. I thought 1966 was in the past.
  • Reply 20 of 29
    The iPad is a computer. The only thing preventing it from doing any type of computing is lack of a program to do it. The insides of the iPad are about as powerful as a low end computer of five to ten years ago.



    My first desktop computer back in 2002 had only 256MB RAM and a 1.8 GHz Intel Celeron chip. When I played with an iPad, on the web it opened pages faster than my old computer ever did. The programs I opened on the iPad opened faster too.



    IPads aren't super fast compared to todays computers but the programs they do run are fast. In time there will be programs available that do everything any netbook computer will do. Leave the movie animation, engineering, and computer aided design programs to expensive high power desktops.



    I'm sure that in time Apple will add more ways to connect to the iPad such as adding better USB connectivity or a card reader. Holding back such features gives them a reason to make new-and-improved models that will get customers to upgrade.



    It's disappointing that companies operate this way instead of making the best product that they can and then improve upon it. Instead they hold back features so that they can make small modifications to future models.
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