Apple becomes No. 3 PC maker in US with industry-leading 21% growth | Hacker News Reader

Apple becomes No. 3 PC maker in US with industry-leading 21% growth

appleinsider.com

68 pointsevo_920 comments

And that doesn't even include iPads

The biggest issue with the presentation of numbers like these, assuming numerical accuracy, is equating an Apple PC with a Dell PC. Not only are they apples and oranges (pun intended), it also puts a zero-sum total into the conversation. If anything, the specific quarter numbers aren't nearly as important as the trailing 8-12-16-however-far quarters to consider the trend of where things are headed.

Because Apple devices have a premium price point against those from HP and Dell, there's a natural market effect where the ceiling of Apple customers exists that doesn't apply to HP and Dell. What we don't know is where that ceiling exists, since Apple continues a near-linear trajectory growth line.

Additionally, I'm not sure that growth is a negative to HP and Dell, i.e. a customer chooses Apple OR HP/Dell, in a one-or-the-other scenario. Simply showing Apple growing it's market share here doesn't necessarily mean HP or Dell shipped fewer units.

Nonetheless, Apple is the only one on the list making material gains with its products, not anyone else.

* Simply showing Apple growing it's market share here doesn't necessarily mean HP or Dell shipped fewer units.

Simply, HP & Dell shipped fewer units. Evidence: Gartners’ chart headings. One of which read, “4Q10 Shipments” the other, “4Q11 Shipments”. But I went to art school, maybe a decline in shipments doesn’t mean they sold fewer units?

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Missed those numbers, didn't see them for some reason (blaming it on coffee, at the moment.)

As for art school, they obviously set you up with snarkiness. :-)

HP and Dell did ship fewer units. That's not to say it's Apple's fault, but Apple was the only top-5 PC maker to see growth this past quarter. All of the other four (HP, Dell, Toshiba, Acer) saw a decline.

Whether they're in direct competition or not is, I think, less interesting than the simple fact that Apple is seeing solid double-digit growth as a top PC manufacturer when all the others, and the market as a whole, are shrinking. And that despite the fact that making PCs is far from Apple's core focus at this point.

I guess HP will make it into the text books. Way to screw up.

Interesting that even after these good results, Apple can still only claim an 11% market share in the US.

Remember that they are only 1 manufacturer. The other 89% is split up amongst the other PC manufactures. Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, HP, Asus, Dell, Acer, Samsung + rolling your own and all the minor retailers.

So on average the other manufacturers have about the same market share.

I wouldn't call those companies manufacturers though as most of the work is outsourced to ODMs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laptop_brands_and_manuf...

The last thing I heard, they were taking a third of the profit (probably more now) despite the smaller market share. I assume they're not so bothered about overall market share as long as those numbers are headed in the right direction.

But what's their profit share? It was well over 30% a few years ago, I bet it's even higher now. And for anything over $1000, it's almost all going to Apple.

And what about installed base? People don't toss Macs nearly as fast as they do PCs.

I'm relatively wealthy compared to the typical American, and I only pull the trigger on an upgrade about every 3 years. Judging by my observations of people using cheap Dell or HP laptops, I'd probably be going through them twice as fast, inflating the number of units.

* only claim 11% market share

1. Ha! Don’t you wish you had an 11% market share in your industry?

2. Since when did market share affect how well Apple is doing? I imagine they have a silo full of money somewhere where employees can swim in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck.

(High-five to all my 90s’ afternoon cartoon fans. I am pondering what you are pondering.)

What I'll be interested to see is whether the same will be true one year from now. The current product line-up still has Jobs' magic touch all over it & I'm really eager to see the quality & innovation of the post-Jobs projects.

Having purchased a new laptop for the family over the holidays, in general, the low end of the laptop market appears to have moved upward by about $1000 due to Netbooks having established a fairly stable price low end of approximately $250.

What I observed was that the $249-$299 laptop segment of a couple of years ago is now largely $349-$399...i.e. cheap laptops are no longer competing with netbooks and any $300 laptops are a combination of Atom (or equivalent) processors and a big case.

And that does not even include iPads, I'd guess.

I cannot wait for their next earnings report.

This is presenting half-truths. They are not really "industry" leading. Lenovo leads worldwide with a 23% growth. Apple had the most growth in US only. They are probably not even on the map worldwide. So this whole "Apple is industry leading" thing is pretty misleading.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/01/rld.jp...

Funny, I could have sworn I saw "in US" in the title. Perhaps I need new glasses?

Change the rose tint on your next pair :)

Apple shipped 4.89 million Macs in that quarter:

http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=115853...

That would place them just below Asus on that list. Not exactly "not even on the map".

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