Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary personal computer shipment data for the third quarter of 2012, providing a picture of just how weak market performance was during the quarter. While Apple actually experienced a year-over-year unit decline of 6.1% in the United States, other top vendors with the exception of Lenovo posted even steeper declines, giving the overall U.S. market a 13.8% decrease in shipments.
Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q12 (Thousands of Units)
Apple's share of the U.S. market rose to 13.6% for the third quarter on the strength of the back-to-school market, which is typically drives Apple's best performing quarter. The figure allowed Apple to maintain its comfortable hold on the third position in the U.S. market behind HP and Dell and marks Apple's best performance in recent years in beating out the company's 12.5% share in the third quarter of 2011.
Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-3Q12 (Gartner)
As usual, Gartner did not cover Apple's worldwide market share for the quarter, as the company does not rank among the top five vendors on a worldwide basis. PC shipments experienced an 8.3% year-over-year decline on a worldwide basis, with Lenovo's 9.8% growth enabling it to take the shipment title away from HP.
Update 2:04 PM: IDC has also released its estimates for the quarter, pegging Apple's share of the U.S. market at 12.5% on a shipment decline of 7%. According to IDC, the overall U.S. market shrank by 12.4%
On a worldwide basis, IDC estimates that HP was narrowly able to hold off Lenovo for the top spot.
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Cool, they get richer and richer... So what when they don't spend these money on more research and development??? Where is the liquid metal? Where are the AR glasses? Where are the cutting edge 3D User Interfaces? Where are the curved glasses on desktop screens? Siri is still in Beta after a full year. 20% of the maps are covered by thick clouds and instead of spending these money on sending a satellite to space and take some really good photos they are sending apple store employers to tag the roads of their area. They milked the americans, they milked the europeans and they are milking now the chinese....
It's crazy to think, really. Apple consider themselves an innovative company, and have crazy profits on their computers. Yet the iMac is outdated, the Mac Mini is outdated, and the Mac Pro is just horrendously -- terribly outdated.
There isn't an excuse. There really isn't. The chips are there, and other companies manage it. I hope I'm being naive, and I hope somebody can explain why they don't do it, because I'm simply in the dark with it.
If they managed to update their Pro line more consistently in the PowerPC days, when the CPU development was much less than Intel's, then why can't they do that now?
It's sad to see, because I feel it's hard to defend Apple as a company these days. The very people who put them into business, and who stuck with them when everybody else was laughing in the late '90s and early '00s, are the very people who Apple now ignore and put on the back burner.
I'm not one of those people; I'm a fairly recent convert. But still, my heart goes out to those who have essentially been screwed over.
Update the damn Macs, Apple. Pull your finger out, and show people you're not a company that caters to hipsters. /rant
Cool, they get richer and richer... ...so what when they don't spend these money on more research and development??? Where is the liquid metal? Where are the AR glasses? Siri is still in Beta after a full year....
For 99% of the users the current machines are adequate. Even my 2008 MacPro which I use for intensive audio production still holds up very well.
That's not the point. I know users that could get by on a 2006 iMac, easily. Apple wants the same price for something they released a year and a half ago. Which were pretty expensive upon release anyway. So to expect your customers to pay the same price for stuff that is outdated is a slap in the face.
And then there are people who would greatly benefit from more cpu and gpu power, solid state drives and usb 3. These are basic standards that come with almost any computer these days (even Apple's own laptop line has them).
So while you can adequately browse your facebook page with your 2008, don't assume that your situation is the norm, nor that there are other types of customers other than that majority, if it were the case.
Cool, they get richer and richer... ...so what when they don't spend these money on more research and development??? Where is the liquid metal? Where are the AR glasses? Siri is still in Beta after a full year....
Is it apple getting tired or am I getting older?
Apple is a very strategic investor with every single dollar, unlike some other companies (e.g. Google). They don't rush out and throw money and see what sticks - they think about what will do well and what they are interested in themselves.
A much different approach, and it has obviously been working quite well over the past decade+.
