Research Firms Paint Very Different Pictures of First Quarter U.S. Mac Sales
According to Gartner's report, Apple placed fifth among U.S. computer shipments with an 8.0% market share on unit growth of 34.0% over the year-ago quarter. Apple's market share was up significantly from the previous quarter's 7.5% share and from 7.2% in the year-ago quarter. The year-over-year increase moved Apple to its highest share first-quarter market share in recent years, in what is traditionally a light quarter for industry sales.
Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-1Q10 (Gartner)
Overall, Gartner saw a healthy 20.2% gain in U.S. PC shipments over the year-ago quarter. The top five performing manufacturers broke down into three groups, with leaders HP and Dell showing slow growth of only approximately 7% while Acer and Toshiba continued to ride the wave of netbook popularity with 50% year-over-growth. Apple's 34% growth places it firmly in front of the industry average, but continuing to lose ground to those directly ahead of it in the charts.
Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q10 (Thousands of Units)
For its part, IDC takes a much more dismal view of Apple's U.S. performance during the quarter, calculating Apple's market share there at only 6.4% on shipments of just over 1.1 million Macs, well below Gartner's estimate of nearly 1.4 million units. IDC's numbers have Apple's U.S. shipments growing only 8.3% year-over-year, significantly below the industry's overall growth rate of 16.9%.
It is unclear from where the discrepancy in data for Apple's shipments comes in the two reports, although most research analysts are expecting in the range of 25-50% year-over-growth in Mac sales for the quarter. While Apple's U.S. sales growth measured by Gartner and IDC may differ from global sales growth being predicted by the analysts, Gartner's analysis appears at this time to be a more realistic assessment of Apple's performance. We should learn more on Apple's sales next Tuesday, when the company releases its quarterly earnings report.
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Apple is it's worst enemy in some ways, refusing to branch out in the Mac department and limiting most of it's ambition to the mobile space.
1. Apple didn't release so many dang iProducts
2. Apple actually cared about their desktop/laptop line enough to give it a substantial upgrade unlike the Macbook Pro's recent update
3. Drop the price.
As much as I love Apple, if they want to see market share increase, they gotta do these three things to keep up with the 'big dogs.'
The 'halo' effect of the iPad will likely keep the momentum going.
I don't see why any spectacular growth should be expected, Apple isn't making an effort to target any new demographics with their Macs. The prices are the same, if not higher, than previously in the last couple of year and all we have had is refreshes. Neither gamers, scientists, health care, engineering, budget buyers are being targeted at all and together these represent a huge chunk of the Windows PC market share.
Apple is it's worst enemy in some ways, refusing to branch out in the Mac department and limiting most of it's ambition to the mobile space.
iPad and associated development is the future.
As much as I love Apple, if they want to see market share increase, they gotta do these three things to keep up with the 'big dogs.'
Market share in the premium end will never increase beyond a certain level. 10-11% at the most is about it. And frankly, no more is really needed.
Behold the Great Netbook Flood!
Never saw that coming. :)
iPad and associated development is the future.
Market share in the premium end will never increase beyond a certain level. 10-11% at the most is about it. And frankly, no more is really needed.
How are they calculating the percentage figures for year on year growth? If you compare Q1 09 to Q1 10 in the table, you certainly dont seem to get the very high looking growth percentages.
While the other sectors are growing in tandem, there would be growth all around.
Never saw that coming. :)
Nor would more than that be desirable.
Did you just say more than 10-11% wouldnt be desirable? I hope you dont run a business... but ill give you a chance to explain
You know, maybe it would help a bit better if
1. Apple didn't release so many dang iProducts
2. Apple actually cared about their desktop/laptop line enough to give it a substantial upgrade unlike the Macbook Pro's recent update
3. Drop the price.
As much as I love Apple, if they want to see market share increase, they gotta do these three things to keep up with the 'big dogs.'
why do you hate it when apple have like 3 iProducts when companies like sony have 100+ products?
What the hell were all these analysts expecting... that HP, Dell and PC's in general would not benefit from it?
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