Apple grows to 7.4% of worldwide PC market as Windows continues to cede share to the Mac

AppleInsider ^ | Monday, April 11, 2016, 04:35 pm PT | By Roger Fingas

[Swordmaker]

Apple continued to grow overall Mac marketshare during the March quarter as most leading Windows PC makers suffered significant setbacks, according to the latest research data from Gartner and IDC.

Apple's total share of the global PC market grew to 7.4 percent in the first quarter of calendar 2016, good for fourth place globally, according to IDC. That's up from 6.7 percent in the same period a year ago.

Apple's total sales actually fell 2.1 percent to just under 4.5 million. But the larger PC market dropped 11.5 percent, allowing the Mac to easily outpace the market.

Market leader Lenovo saw sales slide 8.5 percent year over year to 12.1 million units, according to IDC. The Chinese PC maker accounted for 20.1 percent of the market overall.

HP came in second with 19.2 percent share, off 10.8 percent, to 11.6 million units. And Dell took third with 9 million units, a 14.9 percent share and slide of 2 percent from 2015.

Meanwhile, according to Gartner, Apple's worldwide shipments advanced 1 percent year-over-year to 4.6 million during the quarter, giving it a 7.1 percent marketshare. HP by contrast saw units slide 9 percent, while Lenovo dropped 7.2 percent. Dell lost just 0.4 percent, but the only major PC maker to see growth was Asus, up 1.5 percent.

Lenovo did much better when solely analyzing the U.S. market, growing 14 percent, Gartner said. Dell also saw positive results, rising 3 percent to lead with a 26 percent marketshare. Both Apple and HP saw declines in their home country, with the former slipping marginally, but HP plummeting a whopping 17 percent.

IDC's domestic estimates had Apple in fourth with a 13 percent share, on sales of 1.77 million units in the U.S. American Apple sales were said to be up 5.6 percent, while overall PC sales in the U.S. were down 5.8 percent.

The computer industry has been on the decline for some time. In 2015, global shipments fell below 2008 levels — about 300 million. Even together, the industry shipped only 64.8 million units in the March 2016 quarter. Quarterly numbers haven't fallen below 65 million since 2007.

[Swordmaker]

There's quite a discrepancy in the ASUS figures between the two guessing organizations. IDC guesstimates Apple's figures at 4,466,000 Macs, more than 145,000 less than Gartner's 4,611,00, and puts Apple in fourth place ahead of ASUS which IDC claims sold only 4,392,000 PCs which for some reason is 973,000 less than the guesstimate of 5,365,000 PCs that Gartner claims they made. That's a HUGE discrepancy which puts ASUS in fourth place over Apple. What gives? How can there be such a gigantic error rate between the two highly rated organizations?

Only Apple actually provides actual sales figures, but those accurate figures will not be published for another two weeks or so.

[Dark Knight]

Does this mean they’ll crack 25% of the market in three or four more decades?

DK

[The Real Deal]

I love my I phone 6s. I love my HP desk top more!

[Swordmaker]

The quarterly PC guesstimates have been released by both IDC and Gartner. There is a large discrepancy in the Guesstimate numbers for ASUS which makes a difference in IDC's and Gartner's fourth and fifth placings between Apple and ASUS. There is a 973,000 unit differential between IDC's and ASUS's guesstimates on the number of ASUS PCs manufactured in 2015. That's a difference of between 18% and 22% depending on whose guesstimate you start with. All the others have an around 2% to 4% discrepancy. Apple's is a mere 3.1% and 3.2%. — PING!

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[Swordmaker]

Does this mean they’ll crack 25% of the market in three or four more decades?

This is sales. . . not installed base. In many parts of the USA, Apple Macs already has. . . even in sales.

[Cronos]

Good going apple! Congratulations. Next year may it reach 8% of the market

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Does this mean they’ll crack 25% of the market in three or four more decades?

This is sales. . . not installed base. In many parts of the USA, Apple Macs already has. . . even in sales.

The larger point has to be that the market for computers which are called computers, and have a keyboard, has peaked. Most computers sold today are called “smart phones,” and some are called “tablets” - even tho they have number crunch capabilities (in GPUs) that would have made us drool twenty years ago.

Your point about installed base relates to the higher average price (read, quality) of Apple computers. If the Macs are worth more money they will tend to last longer in service.

[PreciousLiberty]

Another interesting point is that Apple is overdue to refresh the Macbook, Macbook Pro and Mac Pro lines.

There should be a pretty significant uptick after that refresh, which is widely expected to be announced at WWDC in June.

[Bookwoman]

Yes, I am waiting for the new lines to come out.