Despite the UK seeing its fifth straight decline in quarterly PC shipments, Apple’s Mac computers continued to enjoy growth in the fourth quarter of 2011, becoming the only top PC vendor to see an shipment increase year on year.
Technology research firm Gartner notes that in 2011, the UK PC market declined 15.9% as shipments declined by almost 2 million units from 2010, with the fourth quarter becoming the worst decline in five quarters.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, PC shipments totalled 2.9 million units, a decline of 19.6% year on year, as the market was affected by shifts in the economy and the rapid growth of the smartphone and tablet sector.
However, Apple saw its Mac shipments grow to reach 267,000 units, up from 228,000 a year previous, to post a 17.2% shipment increase. This ensured the company held a 9.1% share of the market, weathering the storm as HP, Dell, Toshiba and Acer all lost ground.
Gartner makes sure to point out that tablet devices are excluded from its report, which is beneficial for comparisons to Apple’s rivals on PC sales alone. However, if they were to be included, it would demonstrate an extreme spike in shipments, incorporating a share of the 15 million iPads the company shipped in the last quarter.
With growth of 17.2% between 2010 and 2011, Apple was able to overtake Acer, which suffered a staggering 62.4% drop in PC shipments year on year, seeing them decline from 610,000 units to 230,000 units. HP saw its figures slip from 847,000 in 2010 to 618,000 in 2011, a 27% decline.
Given Apple’s growth in the UK, it could overtake Toshiba in the near future but is unlikely to pose a threat to both Dell and HP in the region. In Western Europe, HP is the clear market leader with a 22.2% share of the market, followed by Acer (13.4%) and Asus (11.5%). Only Lenovo (13.9%) and Asus (1.5%) saw increased shipments across Europe between 2010 and 2011.
Each of Apple’s rivals are working to push their new Ultrabook computers, aimed at tempting consumers away from Apple’s MacBook products. HP has been lambasted over its new Ultrabook range, which is remarkably similar and at times indistinguishable from rival Apple notebooks.
Apple is predicted to update its MacBook line in the coming months and could, in the near future, start to migrate its products to the thinner, lighter MacBook Air designs. Despite being premium products, Apple’s Mac sales show no signs of slowing in comparison to its rivals, something that Dell, HP and its other rivals will be extremely worried by.
Citing statistics like these is meaningless without understanding it in the context of a saturation curve.
Almost every computer on almost every desk in almost every home and business on the planet is a Windows PC. The curve is flat (slow growth) when it reaches saturation.
As for the Mac computer, it's on a steeper curve because most people have a PC not a Mac. 17.2% of nothing is still nothing.
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics." (Especially in Apple propaganda on tech blogs.)
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LikeTim Acheson
Wait a minute. Your market saturation example does not make sense at all. If the computer market is truly as saturated as you say, the same condition would be holding back Apple too, because there would not be enough virgin computer users left for Apple to sell Macs to at a 17.2% growth rate. You've made the error of thinking that Macs and PCs are not sold to the same users. But what you need to realize is that Windows PC makers and Apple sell to the same general market: people who have been already using computers for years. Which means, most people buying Macs are replacing a computer of some kind. Because PC sales are down and Mac sales are up, we know they are not merely replacing Macs. Apple's growth has to be coming from users replacing a PC with a Mac...PC-to-Mac switchers. Your reasoning also does not explain why all Windows PC sales are negative, because even a saturated market needs replacement units. Saturation cannot be the sole explanation. What the data really says is that it is a serious down market for computers in general, and that is why all Windows PC makers are posting negative sales. In a normal market with steady replacement sales, Windows PC makers should post at least 0% growth (steady sales rate or better). The Apple sales growth rate shows that not only are they able to avoid the negative sales of the broader market, but they are experiencing a high positive growth rate that can only come at the expense of the PC market, because Apple is selling at a rate far above what it could if it was only selling to existing Mac users. Unfortunately, your reasoning regarding the PC market is so flawed that you're a prime example of the last line in your post.
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LikelarrytvTim Acheson
Exactly.
If Mr. Acheson was on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg, he would probably be saying "The ship isn't sinking, it's just that the ocean is rising." ;-)
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LikeTim Acheson Tim do the math. 267,000 MacBook's shipped in Q4 11 is hardly nothing. Especially when you consider the margin. I don't have the figures but I'd rather take the margin on 267,000 MacBook sales than the margin on 618,000 HP laptops.
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