Canalys: Apple grabs second place in global PC rankings
Stellar sales of the iPad and iPhone have propelled the vendor into second place worldwide, although other vendors are hot on its heels
Apple is now the second largest global PC manufacturer, according to the latest research from Canalys.
The market watcher placed the iPad and iPhone vendor second in the global rankings – the full list remained unpublished at the time of going to press – with growth of 96 per cent.
Overall, the PC market grew 17 per cent globally in the second quarter, fuelled by a strong performance in the tablet category and a healthy refresh cycle tied to enterprise Windows 7 adoption.
Wintel PC market share – PCs running Windows in conjunction with any x86 processor architecture – fell to its lowest point in more than 20 years, the analyst claimed. Other vendors have rushed to grab a slice of the tablet market with launches from Acer, Asus, HP, HTC, RIM and Samsung.
Chris Jones, principal analyst at Canalys, said: “Competition over the pad [tablet] market remains fierce, with vendor positions likely to change regularly over the coming months.
“Pad vendors dependent on the Android operating system will find themselves in a constant battle to have the latest star product. Apple, HP and RIM, with their own operating systems, have a better chance to build sustainable differentiation.”
Canalys said that business spending had kept up a healthy pace, and few firms had replaced notebooks with tablets or smart phones, a cycle set to take even longer when security and application compatibility issues are taken into account.
Tablets currently used in business are frequently brought in by individuals, Canalys said. This poses a security risk due to being outside the jurisdiction of the IT department.
Jones added: “We have been encouraged by the popularity of Windows 7 and the willingness of businesses to replace their installed base. High-performance PCs are still clearly seen as a major driver of business productivity around the world.”
However, the consumer story is slightly different, with many shunning notebooks and netbooks in the last quarter. In the West, this was caused by national debt issues affecting consumer spending, and rising interest rates, energy and food prices checked the growth seen in Eastern markets such as China.
Acer and other vendors have struggled to clear the inventory backlog, with high inventory levels hitting markets globally, claimed Canalys.
Tim Coulling, analyst at Canalys, said: “Some notebook and netbook vendors are blaming the economy for their setbacks in the consumer segment, but our research shows this has been a relatively minor factor. These PC categories have been slow even in countries with strong economies, such as Germany. Established PC vendors have to come to terms with the fundamental industry shift ushered in by the pad’s popularity.”
He added that Microsoft and Intel are no longer seen as the main source of innovation within the PC market as both lose market share. “On the other hand, regulators are turning their attention to Apple, Google and Facebook, leaving Microsoft and Intel freer to expand,” he added. “Both continue to deliver impressive financial results and growth, partly because the rise in mobile connected devices has unleashed datacentre investment required to provide consumer cloud services.”