IDC more cautious on Apple gains, sees Lenovo push out Acer
updated 07:35 pm EDT, Wed October 12, 2011
IDC Q3 2011 gives Apple 11.3pc share, Acer out
IDC early estimates showed a major shakeup underway in the US PC market headed by Apple. While not as aggressive as Gartner, it saw Apple being the only top computer maker outside of HP to gain share, growing nearly a point to hit 11.3 percent this summer. Toshiba was also reversing its years of gains and was down to exactly eight percent, giving Apple a comfortable third place.
The estimate was much more pessimistic about Acer. In IDC's view, the Taiwan PC builder had dropped out of the top five US builders altogether, being replaced by Lenovo. It jumped nearly a quarter to hit 6.8 percent.
World share was more in sync with Gartner and pushed Lenovo up to second place with 13.7 percent, below leader HP's 18.1 percent. Acer had likewise been knocked down to fourth place at 10 percent and was being joined by its Taiwan-area neighbor ASUS, which jumped in at 6.5 percent.
Researchers came to the same conclusion as their rivals, determining that Apple's gains were coming mostly from runaway sales of the MacBook Air. The Mac maker also had a unique advantage in a tough economy by dictating trends. Along with making ultraportables popular through the Air, the iPad was steering users away from notebooks even during the back-to-school season.
The US had recovered from shrinking much of the year, but "iPad cannibalization" was a key factor in it having grown just 0.1 percent.
