Categorizing iPad as PC would make Apple largest in US market

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Reclassifying the iPad as a PC in terms of sales would catapult Apple past rivals Dell and HP, elevating the Mac maker to the No. 1 computer manufacturer in the U.S., one Wall Street analyst has noted.



In a note to investors, Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank said he believes that the iPad should be included in PC sales. Currently, the touchscreen tablet falls into its own category.



Last week, quarterly PC sales estimates forecast that Apple cracked more than 10 percent of U.S. sales for the third quarter of 2010. Research firm IDC estimated that Apple sold around 2 million Macs domestically, good for a 10.6 percent market share.



The IDC data shows that the PC market grew 4 percent year over year in the third quarter. But the market growth would actually have been 24 percent if the data included iPad sales, Whitmore noted. He has projected sales of 3.6 million units in the third quarter.



"Apple's share in the U.S. computer market is ~25% including iPad which makes it the market leader after an 18 point share jump in only 2 quarters, followed by ~20% for HP and ~19% for Dell," Whitmore wrote.



Mac units, excluding the iPad, grew 24 percent year over year, but with the iPad, Apple's sales grew about 250 percent from the same quarter a year ago. For comparison, HP sales grew 3 percent year over year, while Dell units slid 5 percent.







Apple has aggressively expanded the retail presence of the iPad before the coming holiday season, bringing the device to companies like Target and Amazon. In addition, Verizon, the largest wireless provider in the U.S., will sell the Wi-Fi-only models of the iPad starting Oct. 28.



Whitmore said he believes that retail expansion of the iPad will propel sales of the device even higher. In just its first 80 days of availability, Apple sold more than 3 million iPads.



"We believe the lack of meaningful competition in the tablet space and expanded channel distribution (Target, Walmart, etc) entering the holiday will further expand Apple's competitive lead/first mover advantage," he wrote. "The competitive response to the iPad has been remarkably absent and late (from HP, Asus, Acer, Samsung etc) and we expect strong iPad demand into 4Q (additional countries/channels) to support share gains going forward, particularly as the international roll-out gains steam."



The analyst said that all PC vendors will be impacted by the success of the iPad, but the greatest losses are projected to be experienced by HP, the largest U.S. vendor in the latest IDC figures.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 121
    I for one, bought an iPad instead of a Mac.
  • Reply 2 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Uh oh! An entire article first thing Monday morning about what defines a ‘PC’ that will surely be filled with silly archaic or root definitions of the separate words to defend a silly premise that has no baring to how language in used or evolves. #DebatingLeavingAppleInsiderForTheDay
  • Reply 3 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bloggerblog View Post


    I for one, bought an iPad instead of a Mac.



    What is your current desktop or laptop? If you are using a laptop are now planing on getting a desktop for your next machine over a laptop after using the iPad?
  • Reply 4 of 121
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Uh oh! An entire article first thing Monday morning about what defines a ?PC? that will surely be filled with silly archaic or root definitions of the separate words to defend a silly premise that has no baring to how language in used or evolves. #DebatingLeavingAppleInsiderForTheDay



    Then again the 'other side' like to include net-books .. oops that just fuels the argument doesn't it?
  • Reply 5 of 121
    What's funny about this to me is that apple is the one computer company that clearly defines its separate line ups. The iPad runs ios not osx which clearly puts it more closely in a category with an itouch or iphone than with the macbooks. Other tablets coming to market are trying to run a pc os and this will clearly fail. Let the iPad be in the tablet category and let it dominate.
  • Reply 6 of 121
    boogabooga Posts: 1,082member
    Who cares how the iPad is classified? They're selling boatloads of them at decent profit margins. Who cares whether Apple is 1st or 3rd in the US when they make billions of dollars in profit per quarter and put out the best products on the market?



    The iPad's classification will shake out. Right now I think it's reasonable to put in with the iPods, although the differentiation between iOS and MacOS devices is lessening all the time. Eventually the iPod Touch will get lumped with computers as well, and THEN watch Apple's "market share" explode.
  • Reply 7 of 121
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Uh oh! An entire article first thing Monday morning about what defines a ?PC? that will surely be filled with silly archaic or root definitions of the separate words to defend a silly premise that has no baring to how language in used or evolves. #DebatingLeavingAppleInsiderForTheDay



    I think if people want to be more sensitive about these numbers then the correct terminology would be Windows PC and Mac PC. If these numbers are going to be used for HW unit sale then the iPad should be included as a PC. I looked up the definition of a PC on the web and the term says nothing about the form, OS, or function of the device. All the definitions basically says:



    Quote:

    a small digital computer based on a microprocessor



    Even Ballmer consider the tablets, slates, and the iPad PCs.
  • Reply 8 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bcahill009 View Post


    What's funny about this to me is that apple is the one computer company that clearly defines its separate line ups. The iPad runs ios not osx which clearly puts it more closely in a category with an itouch or iphone than with the macbooks. Other tablets coming to market are trying to run a pc os and this will clearly fail. Let the iPad be in the tablet category and let it dominate.



    Actually, the iPad runs a flavour of OS X now called iOS. What it doesn't run is the OS X flavour called Mac OS X.
  • Reply 9 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    What is your current desktop or laptop? If you are using a laptop are now planing on getting a desktop for your next machine over a laptop after using the iPad?



    At home, I have an old PC I to host my iTunes library, all my "computer" stuff I try to do on my iPad.



    At work I have a Mac and Windows.



    btw: Adobe is doing it again, they released Acrobat X with a free downloadable trial for Windows, but the Mac version is not available yet!
  • Reply 10 of 121
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NasserAE View Post


    Quote:

    a small digital computer based on a microprocessor



    Even Ballmer consider the tablets, slates, and the iPad PCs.



    That opens up another can of worms when you consider how many products contain microprocessors. It might be easier to list what doesn't have them.
  • Reply 11 of 121
    zindakozindako Posts: 468member
    Steve Jobs, unlike Ballmer, is going to enjoy a very nice christmas bonus
  • Reply 12 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bcahill009 View Post


    What's funny about this to me is that apple is the one computer company that clearly defines its separate line ups. The iPad runs ios not osx which clearly puts it more closely in a category with an itouch or iphone than with the macbooks. Other tablets coming to market are trying to run a pc os and this will clearly fail. Let the iPad be in the tablet category and let it dominate.



    Apple has 2 OSes - Mac OS X and iOS. Both are OS X based, the primary difference is replacing the mouse based Cocoa framework with the touch based Cocoa touch framework. The core OS is the same.



    Saying the iPad isn't a personal computer because it doesn't have a mouse/keyboard is like saying in 1984 that the Macintosh isn't a personal computer because it doesn't have a command line.



    Apple started the personal computer industry with the Apple I, they transformed it with the Macintosh and are transforming it again with the iPad. The result is they've jumped to #1 in the US market for computer sales, jumping from 7-8% share when the iPad was announced to 25% share today.
  • Reply 13 of 121
    wigginwiggin Posts: 2,265member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bloggerblog View Post


    I for one, bought an iPad instead of a Mac.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    What is your current desktop or laptop? If you are using a laptop are now planing on getting a desktop for your next machine over a laptop after using the iPad?



    This would be a tough choice for me. I used to use mainly desktops back when laptops were fairly underpowered (my first laptop was a little-used PowerBook 190cs). Not counting my Mac mini HTPC, my last desktop was a Beige G3, which was replaced by a PowerBook G4 and then a Core2Duo MBP. I love the portability, and they are relatively powerful machines. But an even more powerful, larger screened iMac is very tempting.



    So I guess the two questions are:

    1) Is the iPad enough of a computer to handle the load when traveling and not need a MBP?

    2) Can I stand being tied to a desk whenever I need something more than the iPad can deliver?



    Of course, the compromise would be to get an iPad + 17" MBP (too big to carry around every day, but portable when it needs to be). I'm sure Steve & Co would love if I threw that much cash their way!



    Edit & PS: Then again, if Apple created an iOS version of Aperture and an iPad powerful enough to run it, I'd be a very happy camper!
  • Reply 14 of 121
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    This obsession with market share never made any sense, and it is rather meaningless. Market share matters where most money is made with additional sales (like printer refills, light bulbs, etc.). PC makers do normally neither sell software, nor aftermarket upgrades and Apple's various online stores are largely irrelevant for the bottom line. If Apple wanted market share, it could give up some net profits (they can give up a pretty lot without even getting anywhere near the 0-2% margin that companies like Acer "enjoy") and they would be number one by market share in no time. But then, why give up being number one in profit share (in the US and a few European countries)?



    There is no clear definition of "PC", just as there is no clear definition of a smartphone. Going by the definition mentioned above, my coffeemaker is a PC, my car is a PC and my watch is a PC... On the other side: a large number of netbooks are used exactly for the same tasks (or even less) as the iPad, or even an iPhone and a respectable number of desktop PCs (mainly those sold by Dell and HP) are just running as dumb terminals, accessing some mainframe or virtualization solution...



    The real question, IMHO, is not what the right definition is. The question is how these statistics presented by IDC and Gartner can remain relevant, if they exclude iPads (and future competition)... The money spent on tablets comes out of the same budgets, they use some identical parts and manufacturers, they connect to the same infrastructure and, maybe the clearest argument to make, people normally do not carry both. I do not take an iPad and my MBP with me ever. Since it arrived, I have not taken my MBP out of the house even once. And this is only a first generation device with first generation software. Future tablets will do even more, most likely enough for most private and quite a few business users (excluding highly specific stuff).
  • Reply 15 of 121
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    That opens up another can of worms when you consider how many products contain microprocessors. It might be easier to list what doesn't have them.



    That was my point. The only agree with this part. Each source uses different definition. By the way, look at Wikipedia definition of PC. It looks like to was written by Microsoft
  • Reply 16 of 121
    jmmxjmmx Posts: 341member
    Shhhhhhhh!!



    Don't ' tell anybody this! It is a secret for the smart investors!!
  • Reply 17 of 121
    Wow! I think Apple will make the iPad as stand alone "computer" in the next iteration. That's amazing!



    Best
  • Reply 18 of 121
    jmmxjmmx Posts: 341member
    The odd thing is that someone will say something like "The iPhone, which is more of a portable computer than just a phone…" Then they will turn around and argue that an iPad is not really a computer.



  • Reply 19 of 121
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wiggin View Post


    This would be a tough choice for me. I used to use mainly desktops back when laptops were fairly underpowered (my first laptop was a little-used PowerBook 190cs). Not counting my Mac mini HTPC, my last desktop was a Beige G3, which was replaced by a PowerBook G4 and then a Core2Duo MBP. I love the portability, and they are relatively powerful machines. But an even more powerful, larger screened iMac is very tempting.



    So I guess the two questions are:

    1) Is the iPad enough of a computer to handle the load when traveling and not need a MBP?

    2) Can I stand being tied to a desk whenever I need something more than the iPad can deliver?



    Of course, the compromise would be to get an iPad + 17" MBP (too big to carry around every day, but portable when it needs to be). I'm sure Steve & Co would love if I threw that much cash their way!



    Edit & PS: Then again, if Apple created an iOS version of Aperture and an iPad powerful enough to run it, I'd be a very happy camper!





    I only connect my iPad to a computer when I need to update the software. I store all my data on MobileMe. You can also connect a USB equipped camera and download photos from your digital camera.



    Having said that, I find that the current iOS is not mature enough to replace a full-blown OS such as OSX yet. It lacks a system-wide filing-system, and as you mentioned, many professional level applications are not here yet. That is why I feel that Apple should not play tough with companies like Adobe yet.
  • Reply 20 of 121
    cmf2cmf2 Posts: 1,427member
    The iPad will probably be a PC by the time Mac OSXI come out. I believe 10.7 (Lion) will be the last iteration of OSX, it will likely have some more touch friendly features, a new look UI, and some iOS integration (Apple TV interface to replace front row please). I see OSXI as the unifying OS that allows Apple to run a single OS across all their platforms.



    That's a ways down the road though. Right now, I wouldn't define an iPad as a PC when an iTunes sync is required.
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