Apple leads in mobile PC shipments
Keywords:mobile PC shipment? tablet? notebook?
Nearly 80 percent of Apple's mobile PC shipments were iPads, more than 18.7 million shipped in the quarter, up 156 percent YoY, and 48.4 million units for the year, up 183 percent YoY. This was driven by continuing strong demand for tablets where shipment growth was 42 percent QoQ and 210 percent YoY, reaching 31.7 million units in Q4. Notebook shipments were flat QoQ but up nearly 11 percent YoY, reaching 56.3 million units. As expected, consumer mobile PC adoption was focused on tablets, holding up demand in notebooks.
![]() |
Preliminary 4Q11 Worldwide Top Five Mobile PC Shipment Rankings by Brand |
"Mobile PC brands read the writing on the wall in Q4," noted Richard Shim, NPD DisplaySearch senior analyst. "Consumer demand for notebooks was expected to be weak following modest back-to-school results, especially with the expected launch of Windows 8 on the horizon, and increasing interest in tablet PCs. As a result, brands focused their typical holiday price cuts on tablets to boost demand."
Apple's 26.6 percent share in 4Q11 is largely due to its dominant position in tablets, which propelled it to nearly three times the shipments of HP, noted IHS. The other brands in the top five market share rankings relied almost exclusively on notebook shipments to establish their positions.
![]() |
Preliminary 4Q11 Worldwide Top Five Notebook PC Shipment Rankings by Brand |
HP maintained the top notebook PC ranking with a 15.5 percent share, although it lost some of its lead as shipments into North America, China, Latin America and Asia Pacific faltered. Dell and Acer essentially tied for second place with 11.8 percent each. Dell had strong results in EMEA, while Acer continued to struggle in the notebook market. Lenovo continues to build on momentum started early this year with strong growth in China and Asia Pacific with a dip in North America, and maintained its fourth position in notebooks, gaining some share in Q4. Apple leapfrogged over Asus and Toshiba to capture the fifth spot with 8.3 percent market share.
![]() |
Preliminary 4Q11 Worldwide Top Five Tablet Shipment Rankings by Brand (Apple shipments include units for sell through and inventory) |
In the tablet market, Apple continued its strong growth across all its regions, capturing 59.1 percent share in Q4. Newcomers Amazon and Barnes and Noble firmly planted their flags in the market, at numbers 2 and 5, respectivelyAmazon with 16.7 percent share and Barnes and Noble with 3.5 percent. Both brands focused on North America in their market entries. Samsung improved in all its key markets, particularly EMEA, helping it to reach 6.7 percent market share. Asus continued its strong results in North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific as it took 4.6 percent share in 4Q11.
Visit Asia Webinars to learn about the latest in technology and get practical design tips.