Gartner: Mac to 12 percent

The percentage Macs occupy in the US computer market should double within the next three years, a new analysis claims. The research firm Gartner is predicting that by 2011, Apple will control over 12 percent of US computer ownership, making the company a major player, if still likely to be dwarfed by Windows vendors Dell and HP. Market share is also expected to double for Apple in western Europe.

Gartner notes that Apple is not the sole driver of the prediction. "Apple's gains in computer market share reflect as much on the failures of the rest of the industry as on Apple's success," the report reads. "Apple is challenging its competitors with software integration that provides ease of use and flexibility; continuous and more frequent innovation in hardware and software; and an ecosystem that focuses on interoperability across multiple devices (such as iPod and iMac cross-selling)."

The report makes number of other predictions, most notably that by 2012, 50 percent of traveling workers will ignore notebooks in favor of other devices. Although products like the MacBook Air may be extremely thin and light, Gartner contends that they are still inconvenient next to incoming pocket devices. Many of these can cost $400 or less, achieving this partly by connecting to server- or Internet-based applications. The most prominent examples of this today may be advanced smartphones, such as the BlackBerry or the iPhone.

By Electronista Staff