HACKINTOSH.ORG | Macintosh discussion forums

Apple's Market Share In The PC World Continues To Surge
 

While the iPad, a refresh of MacBook Pros, and the juiciest iPhone rumors have grabbed the headlines, lost in the fact is that that more and more customers continue to pick up Mac PC's.  Apple now maintains an 8 percent market share according to AppleInsider.Research firm Gartner said that Apple was the fifth-largest PC seller in the U.S. for the three-month quarter to start 2010.  An estimated 1.398 million Macs were shipped in the States, and Apple only lagged behind HP, Dell, Acer and Toshiba.Gartner's thinking was that the latest hype around the iPad more than likely spurred on the sales for the quarter.  Last year, Macs made up 7.2 percent of the U.S. market. Total PCs shipped in the US were 17.4 million for the first quarter of 2010, which amounted in a 20.2 percent jump from the same time period in 2009.  Breaking it down, that results in two straight quarters of double digit growth in shipments in the US market."Although the first quarter is not typically a strong quarter for the consumer market, growth in the consumer segment was strong," stated Mikako Kitagawa, a principal analyst of Gartner.  "We are expecting about 30 percent growth in the US consumer PC market in the first quarter of 2010.  The positive economic outlook and affordable system prices drove US consumers to buy more PCs.  These purchases either replaced aging PCs or became additions to buyers' households."Analyst IDC also released figures, but they felt Apple's numbers to be a little bit more down.  They found Apple's domestic shipments to be at 1.13 million, which translated into a 6.4 percent market share.  They still found Apple to be the fifth-largest vendor, same as Gartner."As expected, the US market was not able to maintain the spike of growth (more than 24%) seen in 4Q09, but momentum from the holiday season continued, resulting in stronger than expected sales across both form factors," wrote IDC.  "Steadily improved business spending, as well as growing interest in niche desktop segments, yielded a strong desktop quarter."Image courtesy of letsgodigital.org 
 

http://www.maclife.com/article/news/apples_market_share_pc_world_continues_surge