Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary calculations of PC shipments for the second quarter of 2013, finding that worldwide shipments fell by 11% over the year-ago quarter, the fifth straight quarter of year-over-year declines. According to Gartner's numbers, the U.S. market held up significantly better than the global market, but still declined by 1.4%. Gartner continues to attribute the declines in the PC market to strong growth in tablets.
“We are seeing the PC market reduction directly tied to the shrinking installed base of PCs, as inexpensive tablets displace the low-end machines used primarily for consumption in mature and developed markets,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “In emerging markets, inexpensive tablets have become the first computing device for many people, who at best are deferring the purchase of a PC. This is also accounting for the collapse of the mini notebook market.”
Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q13 (Thousands of Units)
Gartner's number show Apple underperforming the overall industry in the United States, with the Mac maker posting a 4.3% decline in shipments compared to the 1.4% decline in the overall market. Apple was able to hold on to its third-place ranking in the U.S. market behind HP and Dell, although fourth-place Lenovo is closing quickly on Apple, driven by nearly 20% year-over-year growth in the U.S.
Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-2Q13 (Gartner)
Apple does not rank on Gartner's list of top five vendors on a worldwide basis, with Asus holding down the bottom spot at 6.0% of the market. All of the top five worldwide vendors saw year-over-year shipment declines, although Lenovo's minimal 0.6% drop allowed it to take the worldwide crown from HP, which experienced a 4.8% decline.
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Apple needs to add back the option to Upgrade/Replace components . Like Ram and the HDD/SDD back to its lines , thats the reason ill be going back to a PC for my new desktop at the end of the year,
Whether or not users can upgrade these things themselves isn't going to have much of an effect on sales. The simple fact is that most consumers never do either.
since apple no longer allows upgrades of their machines and the parts they use inside are more or less bottom of the barrel (cheap ram, slow ssds, nics that dont support jumbo frames, some laptops dont even have lan anymore which is useless for large file transfers, no wifi AC until just now)
i got a lenovo y580 instead, for half the price of the retina macbook ($1279) i got the following
Intel i7 3630 15.6" 1920x1080 with 97% color gamut 16GB Corsair vengeance (upgraded) 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD (one of the fastest ssds you can buy) 256GB Samsung mSATA (for OS) Bluray burner (optional HDD bracket option for tripple SSDs) nVidia GTX660M 2GB ram Intel 6205 2x2 AGN (but this laptop allows me to upgrade to any wifi card i want, so once intel comes out with an AC card i can just upgrade it for not much more than $20, i dont have to buy a whole new laptop)
i just dont see the point of buying something twice the price with half the speed and half the connectivity.
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Apple doesn't sell the most computers. They make the best computers though. Period. The best things in life aren't cheap.
thats strange, they dont make computers at all, Hon hai makes all the computers, the same company that makes HP's computers (more of their business line than consumer).
Most people use the internet for facebook or reading, videos (RE: consuming content)... why would they buy a $1,000 MacBook Air when they can get an iPad Mini for $300?
And it's not like an update to their Mac line will see a huge surge in sales.
This is why Apple needs to stop screwing with their Prosumers.
Apple's computers, especially the retina macbook pros are build with such good quality that consumers dont need to upgrade every other year, but rather every 3-5 years. Makes sense
Ahahahahahahahahah-
Ahahahahahahahahahah----
ive yet to hear of an apple product since ooo at least 2006 onwards that hasn't had issues from launch... Screen ghosting on the RMPs for example... (rest of list is Time Capsules 1st gen failing PSUs, Yellowing Screens on i-Devices, GPU failures in MBPs, Screens sucking in dust on iMacs, antenna gate, case cracking on iphone 3 and 3gs, ongoing issues with WiFi every generation , iPhone 5 "chipping of paint", lots of HDD issues)
Never ever buy 1 1st gen apple refresh, they use 1st gen purchasers as beta testers because their quality control and product testing SUCKS due to the attempt at product launch "secrecy"
Id like to see them release a product, which , from day one, lasts 18months without a trip back to apple for a fix
Love the products after they get it right for the Rev 2 boards
Whether or not users can upgrade these things themselves isn't going to have much of an effect on sales. The simple fact is that most consumers never do either.
But many consumers ask "tech" people for advice before they do, and a decent number of technical people have really been turned off by the non-upgradability of the machines. I'd only recommend someone get a spec'd out machine from Apple or get one that is still upgradeable, and both of those options have the highest price premiums of the line.
Compare that to Lenovo which has some of the cheapest options out there and are pretty well considered by many in tech circles, and it can be a tougher sell nowadays.
Apple needs to add back the option to Upgrade/Replace components . Like Ram and the HDD/SDD back to its lines , thats the reason ill be going back to a PC for my new desktop at the end of the year,
And the iPad has removed the need for me to use a laptop at all
Definitely. And bring back the 17" MBP with 4k screen.
