Apple takes 8.8% US computer share, closes on Acer
updated 05:50 pm EDT, Wed July 14, 2010
IDC sees Apple stalling Toshiba, closing on Acer
Apple is now much closer to taking Acer's third place position in the US computer market, according to an early IDC estimate. Apple grew above the average rate year-over-year to claim 8.8 percent of the market (fourth place) with an estimated 1.62 million Macs, but third place Acer has tumbled from a once secure 12.3 percent to 11 percent. Toshiba leapt a full point, but at 8.5 percent wasn't good enough to get more than fifth place.
At the top, HP consolidated its lead slightly by rising to 25.7 percent of the American computer space with 4.72 million PCs. Dell continued its slide and fell to exactly 24 percent.
Analysts blamed a healthy but slower than expected 12.4 percent average growth rate on an economy that wasn't recovering as quickly as expected, but didn't have a direct explanation for Acer's drop in market share. Overall, the company may have been punished by having a strong spring in 2009, but early reports have hinted that Apple's iPad may be hurting netbooks, one of Acer's core businesses. Besides the tablet, which isn't factored into the results, Apple updated the MacBook and MacBook Pro, both of which are often its most important computers.
Worldwide, computer shipments were up 22.4 percent. HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba held on to their positions, although ASUS grew very quickly at 83.6 percent and virtually tied Toshiba for fifth place at 4.32 million computers. As in the US, Dell and Acer lost a small amount of share, though HP too dropped and has 18.1 percent, or 14.77 million PCs.
Apple didn't place in the top five and wasn't recorded by IDC, although recent estimates have it taking eighth place as Samsung's sudden growth pushed it ahead.
Much of the continued growth was assigned to companies finally replacing aging systems and more of those at home having more freely available income in the wake of the economic crash that dictated last year. Some areas of the world still also have low access to computers and are growing faster than developing areas. Acer's fall on a wider scale was blamed on its bias towards home users where Dell could reap the benefits of focusing on business users.
World market share, spring 2010 (units in thousands)
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Too Bad
It's too bad they don't include categories such as "Number of computers sold costing over $1,000 u.s." or "Profits from sales of computers and peripherals."
I wonder where Apple would be with those categories? I wonder which investors would prefer?
Oh, right. Investors have already decided where to put there money.