Analysis: If iPad is a 'PC' then Apple topples Dell

By Liam Tung on Jan 27, 2011 6:14 AM
Filed under Hardware

iPad drives market, doesn't eat it.

A slightly different slant on the gloomy outlook for PCs is that it's actually very healthy - not in spite of Apple's iPad but because of it.

If Apple's iPad is tacked on to Mac shipments (which generally never make the top five in IDC and Gartner figures) Apple became the third largest PC vendor in the world during the fourth quarter of 2010.

According to Canalys, the iPad can take credit for driving PC shipments up by 19 per cent during the quarter, as opposed to triggering a decline as Gartner forecasted last November.

Apple sold 11.5 million units of PCs and tablets in the past quarter, according to Canalys figures, driving its share of the PC market from 3.8 per cent in Q4 2009 to 10.8 per cent in Q4 2010.

That is, if an iPad is categorised as a PC, it would be the first time that Apple has been viewed as a top five PC maker. With the iPad, Apple would knock Dell out of third spot among vendors.

'Pads gave the market momentum in 2010, just as netbooks did the year before,' argued Canalys Senior Analyst Daryl Chiam. 'We are encouraging vendors to plan for the future and not to remain stuck in the past.'

Canalys' redefinition of the category paints a vastly different picture to rival analyst firm Gartner, which downgraded its forecast for PCs in 2011 by 11 million units, largely due to interest in the pad form-factor.

Gartner analysts believed the time for pads to be considered true substitutes had not yet come.

Canalys' Chiam disagreed. 'With screen sizes of seven inches or above, ample processing power, and a growing number of applications, pads offer a computing experience comparable to netbooks."

If Canalys manages to force others to follow, Apple 'PCs' will only trail those shipped by Acer and HP, which shipped 13.6 and 18.7 million units respectively.

Analysis: If iPad is a 'PC' then Apple topples Dell

7 comments in this discussion

"I don't think there is any argument on that @peterhau. When I say 'iMac', I meant OSX device. The article is trying to make out that iOS devices might be PCs, and could therefore could be counted ..."

By Ace

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Comments: 7

Jane55 Jan 27, 2011 6:59 PM	Hmm, I totoally believe if iPad is a PC, then Apple is toppless! it's apple creat the tablet market, so yup, iPad drives market, jsut from the large number of users, and along with the apps developers, Apple iPad creat a new industry! So many are living on with it now, like iFunia, a prefeesional multimedia software to simplify your Mac life: http://www.ifunia.com/resources.html
Corsair Jan 28, 2011 9:51 AM	Unfortunately it appears that your lovely Apple can't fix your many spelling mistakes. Sigh. Apple is "walled garden" and I detest that. In fact - Apple has become the very thing it accussed Microsoft of being. Microsoft Windows 7 is an amazing Operating System. Yes, Apple does provide some cool "gadgets". Don't fool yourself into thinking that the same level of functionality isn't available elsewhere. I hate Apple products because they force you to do everything Apple's way. As such - they can get stuffed.
anonymous Jan 28, 2011 10:19 AM	@Corsair - hint, maybe we shouldn't be feeding the marketing trolls, even when they cunningly bury their pitch at the bottom of their post. ;-)
Bob Jun 9, 2011 4:00 PM	@Corsair. Vertical integration is the reason Apple is successful. Each stage doesn't need to make a profit because the whole thing makes lots of profit. They can offer the iPad at a better price point than the competition. Real people like Apple because it works. Everyone tries to make an iPad look alike but they work like a PC with a power hungry processors and processor intensive applications. All people want is instant on apps that run hard all day and a decent screen, as long as it is also an iPod. Most developers like Apple because it is easy to test and warrant your application works. How do you warrant an applications works on "Open" systems without testing it on every device? A "walled garden" is good. Critising spelling in a forum etc is bad etiquette in a multicultural and busy world. BTW, you spelled accused wrong, but relax.
Ace Jun 10, 2011 12:35 AM	The reason Apple have iMac's is because iPads are not PC's. If you were to call an iPad a PC, then you'd have to call the iPhone a PC too, which means Android smartphones are also PCs, and Samsung and HTC are then among the biggest PC manufacturers in the world. It's not that they aren't personal computing devices, they're just not PCs as the industry understands PCs to be.
peterhau Jun 10, 2011 4:59 PM	@Ace, the reason Apple has iMacs is that they were the first real foray back into the mainstream market, away from the Power macs and the performas. The iMac is a separate product, and the mac pro sits in the same attitude change of apple computers. first the blue, then the multicolored, then the funky imacs, then the all in one flat screens. these have been evolving over the years, whilst their competition stayed with a desktop model for mainstream. imacs are apple's mainstream. the iphone, the ipad aren't pcs, they are directional changes by apple into untapped markets. prior to the ipod, mp3 players were low memory, high price. now, they are affordable, with decent memory capacity. the ipad took the concept of the tablert and made it a desirable item. how long had the other brands laboured with tablets, with no major take-up? they aren't pcs, or netbooks. But they are innovative and cutting edge, and this is what drives their sales.
Ace Jun 10, 2011 11:58 PM	I don't think there is any argument on that @peterhau. When I say 'iMac', I meant OSX device. The article is trying to make out that iOS devices might be PCs, and could therefore could be counted as PC sales. While I agree there is convergence between PCs and mobile telephones, there are still marked differences. This is not to say that in as short a time as 5 years from now, it could be very difficult to tell the difference between the two. It's definitely coming, and we'll need a new acronym - maybe Personal Computing Device (PCD), that covers all the devices. Or how about Integrated Personal Acuity Device (IPAD)?