Research firm IDC today released its preliminary calculations of PC shipments for the first quarter of 2013, finding the worst year-over-year performance in the nearly 20-year history of its tracking studies. According to IDC's numbers, the worldwide PC market declined nearly 14% compared to the first quarter of 2012, with the U.S. market declining by nearly 13%.
Despite some mild improvement in the economic environment and some new PC models offering Windows 8, PC shipments were down significantly across all regions compared to a year ago. Fading Mini Notebook shipments have taken a big chunk out of the low-end market while tablets and smartphones continue to divert consumer spending. PC industry efforts to offer touch capabilities and ultraslim systems have been hampered by traditional barriers of price and component supply, as well as a weak reception for Windows 8. The PC industry is struggling to identify innovations that differentiate PCs from other products and inspire consumers to buy, and instead is meeting significant resistance to changes perceived as cumbersome or costly.
While Apple's performance was far from stellar, the company did outperform the market by showing only a 7.5% decline in shipments in the United States. Apple's performance allowed it increase its third-place share of the U.S. market from 9.4% to 10.0% as leaders HP and Dell saw significant declines, but a smaller decline from Toshiba and strong growth from Lenovo placed those vendors close behind Apple.
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Apple does not rank on IDC's list of top five vendors on a worldwide basis, with Asus holding down the bottom spot at 5.7% of the market. Lenovo was, however, the only one of the top five worldwide vendors to avoid major declines in PC shipments, managing to hold steady amid the declining market.
Update: Gartner has released its own data showing a similar picture for the PC market as a whole, estimating an 11.2% year-over-year decline for the worldwide market and a 9.6% decline in the United States.
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Gartner's numbers for Apple in the United States, however, show a completely different story, with Apple's shipments estimated to have risen by 7.4% compared to IDC's estimate of a 7.5% decline.
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Top Rated Comments
The Jobs aura is wearing off. Tim Cook just hasn't got it. :(
Cook is responsible for industry-wide decline in PC shipments?
He is responsible for a decline in Mac sales due to too many people buying iPads?
OK. :rolleyes:
But that being said I love my new 27" iMac! :D
We are also starting to implement VDI where it makes sense and this will really start to eat into computer sales.
The days of swapping out that old workstation every 2 to 3 years are gone.
What happens is that for basic computer use a yearly upgrade is not necessary. Even I upgrade every 3 years or so, even though I'm running 10 virtual machines and shoot 36 megapixel images. The average person doesn't have to upgrade at all anymore. Unless they're still running Windows XP, which slows down completely after 2 years of use.
Dear Apple: Take note of Lenovo. Enterprise users want something different than what you give to the kiddies. With iOSX You truly are a general consumer company now with 100% of your products fully entrenched in that market.
Dear Apple, people that have Krazy Bill's thinking are in the minority and please don't forget that when you catered to a niche like Lenovo does your company almost closed it's doors back in 1999 so please don't listen to Krazy Bill, you're doing the right thing with your business model.All that Apple talent. A shame. :(
Oh Apple, one more thing, some people like Krazy Bill tend to forget that professional businesses extend further than the enterprise world, you know, like the Music Recording Industry that uses Macs and OS X exclusively to record and remaster all the music people buy today? Yeah so again Apple, keep doing what you're doing. Some people just don't get it. ;)