Apple's share of U.S. PC market jumps to 6.1 percent
First on AI: Sales of Apple's Macintosh computers over the past twelve month's have grown faster than any other major PC manufacturer, boosting the company's share of the U.S. PC market to 6.1 percent, according to data released by Gartner on Wednesday.
Apple's 6.1 percent share puts it right behind Gateway, whose 6.4 percent share allowed it to maintain its No. 3 position for U.S. PC shipments.
Dell held onto the No. 1 position in the U.S. PC market with a 32.1 percent share despite a 7.1 percent decline in shipments year-over-year. It was followed by HP, which grew its share of the market from 21.2 percent to 23 percent.
Behind Apple in fifth place was Toshiba, which shipped 813,000 units during the third quarter — good enough for 5.1 percent share.
On the other hand, Apple did not place within the top five PC manufacturers worldwide, and therefore data on its worldwide market share and PC shipments was not included in Gartner's preliminary third quarter results.
"Since these are preliminary figures, we only have the top 5 vendors worldwide at this time and Apple was not in the top 5," a spokesperson for the firm told AppleInsider.
Gartner said Hewlett-Packard regained the No. 1 position for worldwide PC shipments in third quarter for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2003.
HP's 16.3 percent share was followed by Dell with 16.1 percent. Lenovo's 7.5 percent share, Acer's 5.9 percent and Toshiba's 4.3 percent rounded out the top five.
In total, Gartner said worldwide PC shipments totaled 59.1 million units in the third quarter of 2006, a 6.7 percent increase from the same period last year.
At the same time, the U.S. PC market experienced a year-over-year shipment decline of 2 percent. The last time the U.S. PC market suffered a decline in PC shipments was the second quarter of 2002, the firm said.
88 Comments
Nice. And remember this is computer sales not installed base. Mac users arguably hang on to their Macs longer than PC users which would suggest that the installed base is most likely somewhat larger than 6.1%
I think that Apple should do some serious research to establish a stat on percentage of HOME Users. Just talking about the entire Domestic/World PC penetration includes huge corporations whose MILLIONS of employees did not actively CHOOSE to use WinTEL boxes, but instead dictated what they must use. How about touting
the penetration numbers of people that have free choice...and excluding the boat loads of Dell's shipped to biz's? Seems more relevant to me.
Apple is clearly pacing thier technology releases so that they do not grow too quickly. It will be intersting to see how well they are able to forecast these growth trends and if they correctly estimate supply and demand for this first Intel-based holiday season. I like how Apple always leaves me wanting every Mac they make, yet always wanting more. I think that is part of thier secret formula. 8)
Apple is clearly pacing thier technology releases so that they do not grow too quickly. It will be intersting to see how well they are able to forecast these growth trends and if they correctly estimate supply and demand for this first Intel-based holiday season. I like how Apple always leaves me wanting every Mac they make, yet always wanting more. I think that is part of thier secret formula. 8)
IMO, this is key because I worked for Gateway in the late 90's/early 2000 and they did grow too quickly, as a result, the product fell far below quality standards and the company itself got too big and ended up having to restructure itself (ultimately costing me my job).
I think these numbers are wrong. I think the entire way of calculating 'Market share' is wrong.
Imagine Apple computers are diesel Volkswagons, and PC's are Ford Festiva's.
When you buy the VW, you know that car is going to last 15 years plus. The Ford on the other hand, will be dead after 4 years.
This means the Ford buyer will be buying on average, 3 vehicles to the one VW. Since market share is mostly based on sales, does this mean Ford has 3 times the market share? I don't think so.
Apple computers last on average, twice as long as a PC.
I'm still running a G3 350mhz as a server with the latest OS on it. How many 8 year old PC's can run Windows XP smoothly? (how many PC's will be able to run Vista... none, without upgrades.)
To use the same car analogy, you get way way more milage out of the Apple then a PC.
So maybe we should ask; Is there a difference between 'market share' and 'user base'?
I would think so, and if Apple's do last twice as long, I think we can safely say that Apple has a %12.2 market share / user base.
Just a thought.