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Topic: Apple

Apple topped mobile PC, tablet market shares worldwide in Q4 2011

Summary: Apple ranked number one in the mobile PC market share for 2011, while Hewlett-Packard held on to first place for laptops worldwide.

Rachel King

By for Between the Lines |

Once again, another survey found Apple dominated the tablet market in both the fourth quarter and throughout 2011 overall.

First, Apple shipped 23.4 million mobile PCs in Q4 2011 (26 percent of the global market share) and over 62.8 million mobile PCs throughout the year -- both mostly filled with iPad orders, according to the latest figures from NPD DisplaySearch.

Although mobile PC shipments grew by 12 percent quarter-to-quarter and by 44 percent year-over-year, NPD DisplaySearch senior analyst Richard Shim explained in the report that mobile PC brands had a difficult time last year.

Mobile PC brands read the writing on the wall in the fourth quarter. Consumer demand for notebooks was expected to be weak following modest back-to-school results, especially with the expected launch of Windows 8 on the horizon, and increasing interest in tablet PCs. As a result, brands focused their typical holiday price cuts on tablets to boost demand.

As for tablets on their own, that category continues to surge -- especially for Apple, which controls 59.1 percent of the worldwide market as of Q4. However, Amazon made a noticeable impression in second place with 16.7 percent of the market share within just a single quarter.

Nevertheless, there was one category that Apple did not win, and that would be worldwide notebook PC shipments, where Apple placed fifth.

Instead, Hewlett-Packard was the winner here with 15.5 percent of the market share and 8.7 million units shipped worldwide in Q4, likely reaffirming the decision that HP's leaders made to keep the consumer PC unit after all.

Both Dell and Acer tied with 11.8 percent of the market, while Lenovo came in fourth with 10.8 percent.

Related:

Topics: Apple, Hardware, Mobility

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  • RE: Apple topped mobile PC, tablet market shares worldwide in Q4 2011

    HP the winner? With $30 billion in revenue but only $1.5 billion in profit.

    That is pitiful.
    Synthmeister
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple topped mobile PC, tablet market shares worldwide in Q4 2011

      @Synthmeister

      Agreed, businesses are generally not focused on revenue but profit.
      gribittmep
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple topped mobile PC, tablet market shares worldwide in Q4 2011

      @Synthmeister Thats a 5% profit margin, in the normal world that is pretty darn good. Not everyone can price-gouge like Apple and get 30% to 40% profit margins and still have a zealot group of cheerleaders making everyone think that is good for the consumer. All the while, they manufacture everything in China. Go Apple!
      clcrockett
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple topped mobile PC, tablet market shares worldwide in Q4 2011

        @ccrockett@... "Price gouging" only happens when a company (or individual) asks exorbitant amounts for a restricted commodity. An example would be like this past Super Bowl in Indy where there was a limited supply of hotel rooms close to the stadium and they were charging three times the normal rate. One could get a room in the burbs for more like the normal rate, but still boosted due to the game. The term applies to an unfair or illegal price fixing on a commodity that exceeds the law of supply and demand.<br>How does Apple's profit margins even remotely compare to that? Go ahead and buy an Android tablet for several price points. Go ahead and buy a KindleFire for $200, which, by the way is less than the cost of manufacture, illustrating yet a different business model. Apple charges what they think people will pay for a quality product. They seem to be quite successful at it. <br>Finally, the margins aren't necessarily from simply picking a price point and hoping people will buy it there it's also how well they can maximize their manufacturing, engineering, shipping, et al cost effectiveness against that pricing point. The so called competitors building Android tablets are making tiny profits on similarly manufactured tablets that they try to market near to the iPad's price point. You've not seen dirt cheap Android tablets because the OEMs don't have the manufacturing base, acumen, or depth that Apple currently has. <br>"Price gouging" claims often come from those who's price point doesn't match the market place price of a product. It is a legal term, by the way, that Apple is far from being accused. Otherwise it is simple envy to invoke it.
        (In disclosure I am an Apple, Inc. shareholder, which also means I have a modicum of business concepts)
        dheady@...
        Reply Vote

      • With the exception of commodities what other business

        @ccrockett@... considers 5% orofit margins "pretty darn good"? I'm curious cause I want to avoid investing in said businesses.

        Pagan jim
        James Quinn
        Reply Vote

      • Price gouging

        @dheady
        Here is a scenario to help illustrate the point. Say I develop some cool app that sells something. I decide to use MasterCard or Visa for the payment system. From my understanding the typical transaction fee would be 3-5%. This is lots better than the 30% fee that Apple charges for using its transaction service. Simple choice? However, Apple requires that all apps for its iOS devices use its transaction service. Price gouging? Artificial scarcity? Leveraging of monopoly in iOS app stores?
        BorgX
        Reply Vote

  • But...Again...it's just a fad..right Loverock???

    All these MILLIONS of tablets being sold, none of them being Microsoft..so it's just a fad right?

    I love when the numbers prove you WRONG.
    SamWilkinson
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple topped mobile PC, tablet market shares worldwide in Q4 2011

      @SamWilkinson TENS of millions. All to a tiny group of advertising befuddled brainwashed Apple fan boys!

      Right?
      dheady@...
      Reply Vote

      • Troll much?

        [b]All to a tiny group of advertising befuddled brainwashed Apple fan boys![/b]

        Do you have any data to back that up or is this yet another example of FUD spewed by a frothing at the mouth zealot?
        athynz
        Reply Vote

  • iPad is a PC?

    In that case what percent of total pc sales did the Kindle garner?
    What about the Nook?

    chuckle ;)
    rhonin
    Reply Vote
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