Apple leads in mobile PC shipments

NPD DisplaySearch has released the details of its most recent mobile PC shipment and forecast report where total mobile PC shipments increased 12 percent QoQ and 44 percent YoY, reaching 88 million units in 4Q11. Apple shipped about 23.4 million mobile PCs in the fourth quarter last year, up 128 percent YoY, and more than 62.8 million mobile PCs for the entire year, up 132 percent YoY.

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.

"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.

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.

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, respectively—Amazon 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.