While the Apple iPad held on to its position as the leading tablet brand worldwide during the June quarter, the gap with other tablet makers shrank — as did the market overall, according to IDC research data released on Wednesday.
IDC research data published on Thursday shows that Apple's share of the global smartphone market grew to 14.1 percent in the June quarter, up from 11.7 percent in the same period a year ago — largely at the expense of Samsung.
Apple once again ranked highest this year on an annual Consumer Reports satisfaction survey for computer support services, the magazine has revealed in its July issue.
Chinese PC maker Lenovo has found itself in the middle of a public relations disaster, following revelations that it sold a number of notebook computers with pre-installed software that hijacks users' browser sessions to inject customized advertisements and seriously degrades the security of encrypted connections.
The worldwide tablet market saw its first-ever year-over-year decline in the holiday quarter, but the biggest losses were seen by Amazon, which saw shipments of its budget-priced Kindle Fire series plummet 70 percent.
Major Microsoft hardware partner Lenovo will pull its 8-inch Windows tablets from the U.S. market, the Chinese company said Wednesday, citing lack of demand for smaller touchscreen devices running Microsoft's controversial Windows 8 operating system.
With more than 20 million combined Mac and iPad shipments, Apple handily retained its title as the world's largest PC vendor in the first quarter of 2014, the latest data from Canalys shows.
Market research firm Canalys reports that Apple achieved a 19.5 percent slice of global, combined PC and tablet sales in the fourth calendar quarter of 2013. That's a larger share of unit sales than Dell and HP together, and well in advance of second place Lenovo and third place Samsung.
Apple has famously compared convertible Windows tablets to combining a toaster and a refrigerator, but competitors are still increasing their output of touchscreen notebooks in hopes of turning around slumping PC sales.
Lenovo's smartphone strategy is so heavily influenced by the iPhone that the company plans to continue targeting markets where Apple's smartphone is viewed by consumers as too expensive, its CEO revealed.
With sales of "just" 33.8 million iPhones, Apple earned more than Samsung's entire mobile unit (which includes PCs, netbooks and tablets) plus the mobile phone hardware divisions of LG, Nokia, Huawei, Lenovo and Motorola, too.
While iPad shipments fell year over year in the June quarter, competing Android tablets saw huge gains, reducing Apple's share of worldwide tablet shipments to less than a third.
Gartner on Monday contradicted its rival IDC and claimed that domestic Mac shipments actually grew for Apple by 5 percent year over year in the holiday quarter.
Estimates released Wednesday from market research firms show overall U.S. PC shipments fell nearly 14 percent year-to-year in the third quarter of 2012, while Apple's share shrunk 6.1 percent over the same period.
Combined Mac and iPad sales reached more than 21 million in the second quarter of 2012, giving Apple a 19.4 percent share of all PC shipments.
Estimated quarterly PC shipments show the overall U.S. market declined 5.7 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2012 while Apple grew 4.3 percent.
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.
On the heels of a report that Microsoft is aiming to release Windows 8 in September or October, a new rumor claims first-tier tablet vendors will launch their first Windows 8 devices in October.
The combined total of iPad and MacBook shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011 gave Apple a whopping 26.6 percent share of the mobile PC market, nearly tripling the share held by second-place HP.
Apple's continuing struggles over ownership of the "iPad" name in China are viewed by industry watchers as an opportunity for rivals Samsung and Lenovo to gain some ground in the massive market.
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Roger Fingas
Sam Oliver
Neil Hughes
Daniel Eran Dilger
AppleInsider Staff
Katie Marsal
Josh Ong
Slash Lane
