HP regains crown from Apple as world's top PC maker
Four months after being ousted by Apple, HP reclaimed the top spot in the client PC market in the first quarter of 2012, eking out a 40,000 unit lead over the iPad maker.
The latest figures posted by market research firm Canalys on Tuesday include shipments of Apple's iPad, though the company's tablet-inclusive numbers slipped in the April quarter while HP's numbers remained relatively steady.
The firm explains that Apple's previous lead was based largely on fourth quarter 2011 tablet shipments, which amounted to over 15 million units. After the holiday season, iPad shipments fell to 11.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, bringing the company's total PC number to 15.8 million.
Lenovo saw 50 percent year-to-year growth to claim third place as the total PC client market grew 21% to 107 million units. Acer and Dell rounded out the top five, though both companies suffered shipment declines from the year ago quarter.
The tablet sector enjoyed a 200 percent year-on-year increase in shipments, lead mainly by Apple's iPad, and represented 19 percent of all PC client shipments in the first quarter compared to 7 percent a year ago.
Notebook and desktop exhibited growth, rising 11 percent and 8 percent respectively. Netbook shipments contracted 34 percent to take only 5 percent of the total PC market compared to a high of 13 percent two years ago, the sixth successive drop for the sector.
"Most of the leading PC vendors have done a reasonable job of offsetting the declines in their netbook shipments over the past year with increased pad business," said Canalys Research Analyst Tom Evans. "Samsung and Lenovo are two that stand out in terms of substantially increasing overall volume, though Asus has performed well too. The challenge is breaking out into the really big volumes to challenge the leaders ? Apple and Amazon. So far, only Samsung has shown it can routinely ship more than a million pads a quarter."
Breaking down the numbers by region, North America showed the most growth with a 31 percent year-on-year bump fueled mainly by tablet shipments. EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and Asia both posted 19 percent increases while Latin America came in with a 10 percent growth rate.
"If you look at the US, pads are approaching 40% of all client PC shipments," said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones. "The rest of the market here was down slightly in Q1. The pad proposition for US consumers is very strong ? thanks to the wider choice in content and apps ? and the impact on the other categories is more severe."
PC makers are looking forward to the opportunity offered by the thin-and-light ultrabook market which is being highly touted by chip maker Intel. The devices are slated to start mass shipments in the second quarter of 2012 and will sport Microsoft's next-generation Windows 8 OS.
Apple is also expected to release a revamped lineup of MacBook Pros that are rumored to be similar in design to the company's popular MacBook Air notebooks. Canalys previously estimated that combined iPad and Mac sales would make Apple the world's largest PC vendor in 2012.
The latest figures posted by market research firm Canalys on Tuesday include shipments of Apple's iPad, though the company's tablet-inclusive numbers slipped in the April quarter while HP's numbers remained relatively steady.
The firm explains that Apple's previous lead was based largely on fourth quarter 2011 tablet shipments, which amounted to over 15 million units. After the holiday season, iPad shipments fell to 11.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, bringing the company's total PC number to 15.8 million.
Lenovo saw 50 percent year-to-year growth to claim third place as the total PC client market grew 21% to 107 million units. Acer and Dell rounded out the top five, though both companies suffered shipment declines from the year ago quarter.
The tablet sector enjoyed a 200 percent year-on-year increase in shipments, lead mainly by Apple's iPad, and represented 19 percent of all PC client shipments in the first quarter compared to 7 percent a year ago.
Notebook and desktop exhibited growth, rising 11 percent and 8 percent respectively. Netbook shipments contracted 34 percent to take only 5 percent of the total PC market compared to a high of 13 percent two years ago, the sixth successive drop for the sector.
"Most of the leading PC vendors have done a reasonable job of offsetting the declines in their netbook shipments over the past year with increased pad business," said Canalys Research Analyst Tom Evans. "Samsung and Lenovo are two that stand out in terms of substantially increasing overall volume, though Asus has performed well too. The challenge is breaking out into the really big volumes to challenge the leaders ? Apple and Amazon. So far, only Samsung has shown it can routinely ship more than a million pads a quarter."
Breaking down the numbers by region, North America showed the most growth with a 31 percent year-on-year bump fueled mainly by tablet shipments. EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and Asia both posted 19 percent increases while Latin America came in with a 10 percent growth rate.
"If you look at the US, pads are approaching 40% of all client PC shipments," said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones. "The rest of the market here was down slightly in Q1. The pad proposition for US consumers is very strong ? thanks to the wider choice in content and apps ? and the impact on the other categories is more severe."
PC makers are looking forward to the opportunity offered by the thin-and-light ultrabook market which is being highly touted by chip maker Intel. The devices are slated to start mass shipments in the second quarter of 2012 and will sport Microsoft's next-generation Windows 8 OS.
Apple is also expected to release a revamped lineup of MacBook Pros that are rumored to be similar in design to the company's popular MacBook Air notebooks. Canalys previously estimated that combined iPad and Mac sales would make Apple the world's largest PC vendor in 2012.
Comments
Enjoy it while it lasts, HP!
Those figures would be before the iPad 3 came out. Also, Apple will get another nice boost when they start upgrading Macs to Ivy Bridge.
Until the new Macs come.
Wowwwww . . . .
/sarcasm
This is no longer impressive, HP.
Well, if it was 1998, then yes . . .
Why does anyone care who sells the most of anything? It's just bragging rights in my opinion. It's the old "there are more cockroaches on the world than humans" argument. Define a successful species or company. I really don't care if Apple sells more "PCs" than HP, depending on how one defines PC. I don't care if Samsung sells more smartphones than Nokia or Apple. Each side of this "war" uses whatever metric makes them look the best in comparison to their rival; market share, mind share, revenue, profit, stock price, p/e ratio, surveys, studies, analysis, whatever. I don't care if Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Really. Why should Apple fans give a crap about how many TVs, PCs, MP3 players, phones, tablets Samsung, or Nokia, or RIM, or HP, or Dell, or Sharp, or whoever. I don't care how many cars Toyota sells because I don't buy Toyota cars. Apple won't be the top dog forever. Just look at Microsoft. NOBODY gives a tinker's damn what Microsoft does anymore. And they were the top dog for years. So it will be with Apple.
As a long time Apple customer I care that Apple continues to make high quality, useable products that I enjoy, and provides good customer service when I need it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkrupp
Why does anyone care who sells the most of anything? ... I really don't care if Apple sells more "PCs" than HP... NOBODY gives a tinker's damn what Microsoft does anymore. And they were the top dog for years. So it will be with Apple.
Get with the program, noob. Here at AI if there's an article that paints Apple as less than anything but the pinnacle of greatness and awesomitude, you come out swinging with excuses, refutations, and snark, because that makes everything better.
HP slaps their name on Steve Ballmer's patent laddened pc and call it the pavilion.Yuck, yuck!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Habanero
Get with the program, noob. Here at AI if there's an article that paints Apple as less than anything but the pinnacle of greatness and awesomitude, you come out swinging with excuses, refutations, and snark, because that makes everything better.
And I'm also tired of your type too. You are on the other side of the mirror of those whom you criticize. Nothing Apple does merits any worth with your type. You are here on an Apple centric website for one reason and one reason only, to tear down and ridicule.
If they are including iPads, this "crown" they speak of won't last long. I am not concerned with who sells the most because everyone is always in a state of "about to release a new product line". Apple releases their products throughout the year and when they get ready to roll out a new product, demand decreases for current products and supply goes away within a month or so of the new product. Then after they release a new product, it takes a while for them to roll it out around the world. Apple is STILL rolling out the iPad 3, even though it was announced and started shipping two months ago, plus they are ramping up production as they have more demand than product rolling off the production lines. Now it is desktops and laptops that are about to get updates, so some of their products are dwindling in sales while everyone prepares for the new product announcements. If Apple does't release any new laptops or desktops this month, then wait until WWDC.
Do you think it's going to make a difference. I still use my Macbook Air as my main machine but it seems that Apple is focusing more and more with iOS. Not a real fan of iOS but I'm a big fan of OSX and it seems like Apple wants to introduce more elements of iOS within OSX, including all the limitations. Unless Apple introduces a higher rez screen for their next gen Airs I think I'm going to a Asus Zenbook with higher rez, better battery and Hackintosh it or use my favorite linux Centos and Solaris 11.
Here's hoping Apple will come out with a retina display, please, please Apple.
Let's see...
HP market cap = 49 Billion
Apple market cap = 582 Billion
But hey, HP is the world's number 1 PC maker!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Relic
Do you think it's going to make a difference.
Of course it will. The last iMac update was exactly one day shy of an entire YEAR ago. People are waiting.
Quote:
…including all the limitations.
Enlighten us on these, if you would? I see nothing but increased usability with OS X.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lkrupp
And I'm also tired of your type too. You are on the other side of the mirror of those whom you criticize. Nothing Apple does merits any worth with your type. You are here on an Apple centric website for one reason and one reason only, to tear down and ridicule.
I guess I should have included my <sarcasm> flag, since you completely missed it.
My point (as long as I'm spelling things out) was that this article really has nothing to do with Apple, and certainly doesn't make Apple any less successful, or its products any less compelling. Yet judging by the responses that are common to this kind of faux news on this forum, it seems people take it personally that another computer company sold more units one quarter than Apple did, so they feel a juvenile need to rush to Apple's defense (as if they needed defending).
Nobody cares about the newest chipset any longer, especially now that Apple is dumping their pro series. Besides when you take away the iPad from the equation, Apple has 8.8% of the computer market. Which is incredible by the way but a far cry from what HP has. Computer market not media consumption devices like the iPad/iPod.
I guess I am odd but I look to see how much profit these companies make from their endeavors. It matters not a whit to me what position Apple ranks in unit sales if they are bringing home the largest share of profits.
Aaah I still have faith that OSX will be untouched by Apples transition into total control over wht the user can and cannot do with their computers. I said what I said about the new verssion of OSX that will only allow the user to install programs that are signed from the Apple Store. There is a way to overide it but it is still registered with the system, which program was overriden and what it does. All programs that are installed will be regestered with Apple and this will probably be the last version that you will be able to side load programs. Apple is already getting rid of their pro stuff, I just have this bad feeling that oSX will become as closed as iOS, if that is the case then I will defiantly not use OSX anymore and just buy Macbooks to install Unix or Linux on. Which is okay by me as I'm starting to really like Linux more and more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Relic
…this will probably be the last version that you will be able to side load programs.
Hell hath no fury like me scorned. Me being 'a user', not 'a woman'. No way are they getting away with that.
Quote:
Apple is already getting rid of their pro stuff…
Huh. Seems they're updating FCP just fine. And Logic'll be coming along, too. The MacBook Pro's update has been anticipated for some time, and the Mac Pro just recently saw new chips finally become available.
Unless you an investor does it matter? Ah you like to see which company can charge the most money on top of what it is actualy worth for the product just to see which idiot bites first, sick man, really sick. Yes Apple has the highest margins of any computer company out there. Are you happy now, huh, it's not crack but it as well should be as I would still buy a Macbook Air even if they charged 75% margin istead of just 50%. Oh man, I need rehab, my name is Relic and I'm a Appleholic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Relic
…even if they charged 75% margin istead of just 50%.
I'd like the numbers, please, where you're getting a 50% margin.