The news just keeps getting better and better all the time for Apple. Now comes news from DisplaySearch, a PC research firm, that Apple suddenly stands at the top of the mobile PC market.
The latest research figures from DisplaySearch, show that Apple shipped 10.2 million mobile PCs worldwide in the fourth quarter, taking 17.2 percent of the market share. Hewlett-Packard’s 9.3 million units followed them and 15.6 percent share. Then came Acer, Dell, and Toshiba who rounded out the top five with mobile PC shipments of 8.4 million, 5.9 million, and 5.1 million, respectively.
The growth rate has been phenomenal, since only four months ago they were ranked number three. In the third quarter Apple’s share was 12.4 percent, now it’s 17.2.
How did this happen? Well, they’ve mastered the consumer PC. Not the business PC, which Microsoft still dominates. But consumers realize that the reason they want a PC is not for the office applications or the gaming experience. They want it for the specific Apps that Apple has tied into their Mobile devices.
The research firm Canalys reported last month that Apple’s PC shipments shot up 241 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. That figure included sales of Apple desktops, its MacBook line, and the iPad. The odd thing is that critics at the time said that including the iPad in PC shipments unfairly skews results in Apple’s favor, and they contend that tablets are not actually PCs. Well, if they are not PC’s what are they? Consider that the iPad has ample processing power, a screen about seven inches in size, and plenty of apps, some business related, but many are not. So why isn’t the iPad a PC?
In fact, over the past couple of months, PC companies have unveiled tablets to compete with the iPad. Dell released the Streak 7, while HP plans to release the TouchPad tablet, over the summer. They join numerous other tablets expected to hit store shelves this year.
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