Mac market share rises 15.9 percent year-over-year
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Oct 17, 2007 at 5:59pm
Worldwide personal computer shipments grew by 15.5 percent in the third quarter of 2007 , according to IDC’s “Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computer Tracker” report. In the U.S., Apple’s market share was up 6.3 percent, giving the Mac 5.9 percent market share. That’s a 15.9 percent increase from the third quarter of 2006 to the third quarter of 2007.
The increase for Apple puts it in the number three spot in the United States, behind Dell (28 percent) and HP (24.3 percent). Toshiba (5.2 percent) and Gateway (5.2 percent) round out the top five. In the year-over-year picture, Dell’s market share was down 4.8 percent, HP’s up 16.9 percent, Toshiba’s up 16.7 percent and Gateway down 14.2 percent
Most regions continued to grow close to the pace of recent quarters, but EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) saw a significant increase in portable personal computer demand, notes IDC. Across regions, strong consumer and small and medium business demand was supported by back-to-school promotions and competition for retail and SMB channels. A strong Euro and rising investment throughout EMEA helped accelerate the trend, pushing global growth to rates not seen since the end of 2005.
“The appeal of portable personal computers in all regions continues to propel the Personal Computer market at a remarkable pace and sets the stage for a very strong fourth quarter,” says Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s “Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computer Tracker.” “Falling costs, aggressive vendor competition, and rising commercial spending in all regions, along with relatively low penetration and rising consumer income in emerging markets, will sustain high growth over the next couple years.”
The U.S. market came in close to expectations with desktop volume declining gradually while portables growth remained strong but below last quarter’s accelerated pace. EMEA saw strong back-to-school and SMB growth as the top vendors all boosted their portable shipments.
In Japan, shipment growth remained below zero, but improved from prior quarters. HP continued to make gains riding strong consumer portable growth, while Toshiba’s volume declined with a focus on profitability and the slower-growing commercial segment. Most other vendors saw relatively flat growth comparable to the market. NEC remained the market leader and although volume was flat from a year ago, growth recovered from a soft second quarter. The Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan) saw another solid quarter with the biggest markets all coming in slightly ahead of expectations.
Meanwhile, a Gartner report says worldwide personal computer shipments totaled 68.5 million units in the third quarter of 2007, a 14.4 percent increase from the same period last year. The research group says personal computer shipments in Asia/Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) increased 23.4 percent and 16.4 percent, while shipments in the U.S. grew 4.7 percent (below Gartner’s forecast of 6.7 percent growth).
“The consumer computer market continues to drive worldwide personal computer market growth,” says Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner’s Client Computing Markets group. “Back-to-school sales were a major growth factor in mature regions, although U.S. sales were softer than expected. The popularity of mobile computers in the home market continues to propel growth.”
Hewlett-Packard retained the No. 1 position in the worldwide personal computer market with 18.3 percent market share, per Gartner. Dell had 14.4 percent, Acer 8.1 percent, Lenova 8.0 percent and Toshiba 4.4 percent. All other vendors combined (including Apple) accounted for 46.3 percent.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
