Apple becomes No. 3 global PC maker with 241% growth, if iPad is included

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
With Mac and iPad sales combined, Apple computer sales grew 241 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2010, vaulting the company into third place in worldwide PC sales research, firm Canalys revealed on Wednesday.



With Mac and iPad sales combined, Apple shipped 11.5 million units in the holiday quarter of 2010. That was enough for the Cupertino, Calif., company to edge out Dell, which has 11.4 million units.



Apple took 10.8 percent of global PC sales, according to numbers from Canalys. And with record year-over-year growth dwarfing the rest of the industry, Apple is now within striking distance of the No. 2 worldwide manufacturer, Acer, with 13.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010.



The addition of iPad sales helped Apple tremendously, giving the company 241 percent growth from the same period in 2009, compared with industry-wide growth of 19.2 percent. A year prior, the company sold 3.4 million Macs.



"Any argument that a pad is not a PC is simply out of sync," said Canalys senior analyst Daryl Chiam. "With screen sizes of seven inches or above, ample processing power, and a growing number of applications, pads offer a computing experience comparable to netbooks. They compete for the same customers and will happily coexist. As with smart phones, some users will require a physical keyboard, while others will do without."



The top vendor for the quarter was HP, which sold 18.7 million units, good for 17.7 percent of the market. While HP maintained its No. 1 position, it grew sales just 2.9 percent year over year, well behind Apple, as well as the market average.



"Pads gave consumers increased product choice over the holiday season," Canalys analyst Tim Coulling said. "While they do not appeal to first-time buyers or low-income households, they are proving extremely popular as additional computing devices."







Last week, Apple revealed record sales of Macs and iPads in its quarterly earnings report. The company reported 4.13 million Mac sales, a 23 percent increase over the same period a year prior.



Apple also sold 7.33 million iPads in the holiday quarter -- the first such sales period for the touchscreen tablet, which launched in April 2010. But since its debut, the iPad, with a starting price of $499, outsold the Mac, leading one Wall Street analyst to refer to the device as Apple's "Mac of the masses."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 195
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    At least Daryl Chiam gets it. Still, I don’t foresee “media tablets” being added to the total number of PC sales. I’m betting on them making a separate category for this new device type.
  • Reply 2 of 195
    mazda 3smazda 3s Posts: 1,613member
    So a screen size of 7" or higher makes a tablet a PC now? Who makes up these arbitrary figures?



    Hell, you might as well call a iPod touch a PC as well -- it has the same processing power (and actually more RAM I think) in a smaller form-factor.
  • Reply 3 of 195
    iliveriliver Posts: 299member
    It's a lttle early for April fools.

    If an iPad is considered a computer then so should an iPod Touch and a Sony Dash.

    And netbooks can play flash and don't need to be synced to a mother computer because they ARE a computer.
  • Reply 4 of 195
    boogabooga Posts: 1,082member
    Wasn't Apple the first to claim the iPad as a separate device category?
  • Reply 5 of 195
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    The iPad is like a short-range shuttle that comes off the mother ship. You can live in it for a while, but eventually you have to dock again. Until it loses the umbilical cord it should not be in the same category.
  • Reply 6 of 195
    jcozjcoz Posts: 251member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iLiver View Post


    It's a lttle early for April fools.

    If an iPad is considered a computer then so should an iPod Touch and a Sony Dash.

    And netbooks can play flash and don't need to be synced to a mother computer because they ARE a computer.



    Right, because Flash has been around since the first PC, hence it being a defining characteristic of what a PC really is.



    Sound logic.



    I dont give a shit about where apple ranks, those devices ARE computers, Itouch, Ipad, Iphones, and and a whole host of similar products provided by non-apple companies.



    Only a moron would sit there trying to draw the lines between an ipad and a netbook.



    Flash and Syncing? Really, that's why the netbook is a computer and an ipad isn't?



    Please. Its ridiculous.
  • Reply 7 of 195
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Booga View Post


    Wasn't Apple the first to claim the iPad as a separate device category?



    Yes, but Apple could reverse that by doing two things.



    1) Showing stats of the iPad lumped in with PCs as a whole. Note they already did something similar last year by lumped all notebooks into the ?mobile devices? category so they could claim title as largest by unit sales.



    2) Allowing for the iPad to be used without first (or ever) being tethered to another computer. I say ?ever', because if t can?t get system updates without being attached to a traditional ?PC? then psychologically it will be seen as a lesser device in that sense regardless of its usefulness.
  • Reply 8 of 195
    jcozjcoz Posts: 251member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    The iPad is like a short-range shuttle that comes off the mother ship. You can live in it for a while, but eventually you have to dock again. Until it loses the umbilical cord it should not be in the same category.



    Right, because you get to define the parameters arbitrarily.
  • Reply 9 of 195
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mazda 3s View Post


    So a screen size of 7" or higher makes a tablet a PC now? Who makes up these arbitrary figures?



    Hell, you might as well call a iPod touch a PC as well -- it has the same processing power (and actually more RAM I think) in a smaller form-factor.





    Seriously. Apple should include the iPod Touch into its computer sales. They run full apps on a full iOS. As such, it has all the abilities of the iPad, which clearly is a full fledged computer.
  • Reply 10 of 195
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jcoz View Post


    Right, because Flash has been around since the first PC, hence it being a defining characteristic of what a PC really is.



    Sound logic.



    I dont give a shit about where apple ranks, those devices ARE computers, Itouch, Ipad, Iphones, and and a whole host of similar products provided by non-apple companies.



    Only a moron would sit there trying to draw the lines between an ipad and a netbook.



    Flash and Syncing? Really, that's why the netbook is a computer and an ipad isn't?



    Please. Its ridiculous.



    Gotta love how he claims the iPad is not a computer simply because it’s not defined as “personal computer” by analysts. The only thing around here that does not compute isn’t the iPad, but its name does start with a lower-case ‘i’.
  • Reply 11 of 195
    jcozjcoz Posts: 251member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by NotCEOyouda View Post


    Seriously. Apple should include the iPod Touch into its computer sales. They run full apps on a full iOS. As such, it has all the abilities of the iPad, which clearly is a full fledged computer.



    This is seriously funny to me.



    What, pray tell, is a "full fledged computer"?



    Because MOST everything you would consider a full fledged computer, has limitations.



    Has programs and games that it does not have the capability to run.



    So who exactly defnied the minimum for this full fledged computer you speak of?
  • Reply 12 of 195
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    It's really not appropriate to include iPad in Apple PC sales numbers. Not at all. It's an iPad, not a Mac.
  • Reply 13 of 195
    ...to be fair, they're not counting server sales, either (are they?)



    I'm not trolling or anything, but I can see the haters immediately screaming that if iPads counted, servers should somehow count too. Yep, I know it says "PC" up there, but it's easy to smell such a desperate "OAMG then servers should count too!1!! condition coming from a mile away.



    IMHO, the iPad (and Galaxy Tab, HP Slate, etc) should count as personal computers, and I find it interesting that they wouldn't be by the likes of IDC, Gartner, etc.



    In some ways, if I were some sort of eeevil MSFT-hater, I'd be totally cozy with such intentional blindness - it would lull Microsoft to sleep, thinking they still have the market sewn up while the competition began to eat them alive. OTOH, facts are facts, and if this doesn't wake Ballmer up (or more importantly, MSFT shareholders), then honestly, nothing will.
  • Reply 14 of 195
    jcozjcoz Posts: 251member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pmz View Post


    It's really not appropriate to include iPad in Apple PC sales numbers. Not at all. It's an iPad, not a Mac.



    Explain to me how a netbook or laptop is a personal computer (which by actual definition is a programmable machine), and an iPad is not
  • Reply 15 of 195
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pmz View Post


    It's really not appropriate to include iPad in Apple PC sales numbers. Not at all. It's an iPad, not a Mac.



    Where have I heard that argument before? Oh yeah, the last 25 years.
    It's really not appropriate to include [Mac] in PC sales numbers. Not at all. It’s a [Mac], not a [PC}.
    Demarkation lines for what should or should not be included aren’t exactly arbitrary, but there is plenty of wiggle room for vendors and analysts without lying about their stats.
  • Reply 16 of 195
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jcoz View Post


    Right, because you get to define the parameters arbitrarily.



    It's not arbitrary. To me, the fact of having to sync changes my perception of the device the whole time I'm using it. When I create a file I'm thinking about the next sync. When I see the battery go down I'm thinking about the next sync. When I create a bookmark I'm thinking about the next sync. Sync is not an isolated thing that happens when I plug in, it is always there, effecting how I use it.
  • Reply 17 of 195
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    1) . Note they already did something similar last year by lumped all notebooks into the ?mobile devices? category so they could claim title as largest by unit sales.







    I think that they did the right thing there. All these Mobile Devices include laptops (Macbooks) and tablets (iPhone and Ipod Touch) and smartphones (iPhone 4 and Iphone 3GS), and Apple is clearly a Mobile Device Company now.



    But what are these mobile devices? They are all computers. They have a boatload more computing power than desktop computers had a few years ago. Their I/O is way more advanced too. Especially with WiFi and BlueTooth coming in, and wireless printing and Retina Screens for output. Yesterdays computers pale in comparison to the Ipad and the Touch.



    I think that it is time for the iPod Touch, the iPad, and the rest of the mobile computers to finally get their due. They really are the most advanced computing devices available, each in their own way.
  • Reply 18 of 195
    The issue here is what is a precise definition of a PC? Does it need to include a physical keyboard? Probably not. Does it need a minimum size screen to differentiate the category from smartphones? Maybe. Does the device need a minimum processing speed and minimum memory to qualify as a PC? Perhaps.



    Anyway, presently it doesn't make sense to me that netbooks are classified as PC's but tablets, including the iPad, are not. I think many would agree that the iPad, and many other tablets, can do just about everything a netbook can do, but do it faster.



    The analysts, who report on the numbers, need to reexamine and redefine what characteristics are required to be considered a PC. Personally, I would consider netbooks and tablets both to be PC's. I think a breakdown of the major lines compromising PC's is necessary to clear-up the present confusion, such as desktops, notebooks, netbooks and tablets. Then place the reporting numbers in the appropriate sub-category. I guess you might call that - comparing Apples to Apples.
  • Reply 19 of 195
    solsunsolsun Posts: 763member
    Quote:



    "Any argument that a pad is not a PC is simply out of sync," said Canalys senior analyst Daryl Chiam. "With screen sizes of seven inches or above, ample processing power, and a growing number of applications, pads offer a computing experience comparable to netbooks. They compete for the same customers and will happily coexist. As with smart phones, some users will require a physical keyboard, while others will do without."





    Actually I'd say that any argument that a pad IS a PC is simply out of sync.. I love my iPad, but it is largely a consumption device. Calling it a PC is like calling a bicycle a car because they both have wheels.. Until the iPad can run Mac/PC class software and be used for creating and not mainly consuming, it should continue to be classified as a different product category.
  • Reply 20 of 195
    Yes, iPad should be included as a "PC".



    Now, what about iPhone, iPod Touch, and other smart phones (Moto Atrix that can dock into a external display)? They are all mobile "PC"s.
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