It was a good run, but the distinction of being the world’s top PC maker was nipped away from Apple and now resides with HP. Apple held the spot for four months, but market research firm Canalys said today that Apple’s numbers (which include iPads sales) no longer surpassed HP’s, which beat the Cupertino tech company by a mere 40,000 units. Here’s a bit of data about the whole thing:
The firm explains that Apple’s previous lead was based largely on fourth quarter 2011 tablet shipments, which amounted to over 15 million units. After the holiday season, iPad shipments fell to 11.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, bringing the company’s total PC number to 15.8 million.
Tablets have been turning the PC market on its end by making analysts re-evaluate what qualifies as a “PC”. Unlike PCs, tablets have enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity (200 percent increase year-on-year) with the iPad at the forefront. When the dust settled, tablets represented 19 percent of total PC shipments in the first quarter of 2012 (as opposed to 7 percent last year). On the one hand, naysayers will tell you that a tablet isn’t a PC, but it looks like people who want a PC are buying tablets to do the same job. So you tell me.Source: AppleInsider
