Apple still first in overall PC shipments despite rough quarter for iPad

[Shawn Knight]

Apple experienced the sharpest ever decline in iPad shipments during the first quarter of this year but even still, the company outperformed all others in terms of combined worldwide PC and tablet sales according to the most recent information from independent analytics firm Canalys.

The fall in iPad shipments would normally be reason for concern but according to Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Coulling, it’s actually a smart move. He said Apple took action during the quarter to run down its iPad inventory as tablet stock in the channel rose due to strong seasonal shipments during the previous quarter.

As such, Canalys doesn’t believe the Q1 performance points to a decline in the tablet category even with increased pressure from large-screen smartphones. Coulling highlighted the fact that consumers and businesses are continuing to adopt and because of this, tablets are acting as disruptors and are finding a place as desktop and notebook replacements.

Looking at the overall picture, worldwide PC shipments which include tablets hit 123.7 million during the first three months of 2014, up five percent year over year. Tablets accounted for 41 percent of all shipments at 50.8 million units, barely edging out notebooks with 38 percent of the market.

Canalys credited the end of life status of Windows XP as a factor that led to increased shipments. This also helped desktop shipments remain flat year on year. Without Microsoft ending support for the aging OS, desktop shipments likely would have been down.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56709-apple-still-first-in-overall-pc-shipments-despite-rough-quarter-for-ipad.html

 

[Guest]

These statistics just don't make sense in my head, HP, Lenovo sell PC's, Apple sells Mac's, if you add just Lenovo and HP together they easily surpass Apple in sales of PC's. Let alone adding the rest of the industry that sell PC's. So tell me again, how does Apple sell more Mac's than PC's?

 

[VitalyT]

What PC shipments? Did you mean gadgets? I think it's the latter, because Apple's PC shipments are far behind those companies.

I don't see how tablets suddenly count as PC-s. They don't, because they aren't.

I have a bad feeling about Apple for this year. It feels that when iPhone 6 is announced they will not have anything up their sleeve, just mundane screen size changes, and overly terribly predictable.

I do want to be wrong in that, but have little hope for that. And if they do not improve on the DPI, then for me they are done for. 326 vs 540 from other companies isn't much of a competition.

 

[soulsassassin]

What PC shipments? Did you mean gadgets? I think it's the latter, because Apple's PC shipments are far behind those companies.

I don't see how tablets suddenly count as PC-s. They don't, because they aren't.

I have a bad feeling about Apple for this year. It feels that when iPhone 6 is announced they will not have anything up their sleeve, just mundane screen size changes, and overly terribly predictable.

I do want to be wrong in that, but have little hope for that. And if they do not improve on the DPI, then for me they are done for. 326 vs 540 from other companies isn't much of a competition.

everybody knows that after 330 DPI nothing is noticeable with a normal distance of viewing that's why they call it retina display pushing more resolution on a 9.7 inch screen is useless only stressing the GPU .what would be interesting is changing the 4:3 aspect ratio for a more wider screen like 16:10 or 16:9

 

[VitalyT]

everybody knows that after 330 DPI nothing is noticeable with a normal distance of viewing that's why they call it retina display pushing more resolution on a 9.7 inch screen is useless only stressing the GPU .what would be interesting is changing the 4:3 aspect ratio for a more wider screen like 16:10 or 16:9

That's a very common mistake that many users have been trying to argue for. The human eye needs about 1000 DPI for the screen to be indistinguishable from reality. And that's the true retina density, not some Apple marketing who decided to introduce one based on hard to see pixels.

There is plenty of room for further improvements, and 4K is touted to be available in mobile phones sometime next year.

 

[gamoniac]

What PC shipments? Did you mean gadgets? I think it's the latter, because Apple's PC shipments are far behind those companies.

I don't see how tablets suddenly count as PC-s. They don't, because they aren't.

I have a bad feeling about Apple for this year. It feels that when iPhone 6 is announced they will not have anything up their sleeve, just mundane screen size changes, and overly terribly predictable.

I do want to be wrong in that, but have little hope for that. And if they do not improve on the DPI, then for me they are done for. 326 vs 540 from other companies isn't much of a competition.

Yep, the title of the article is inaccurate. Traditionally there are two categories of computers: PC (e.g. Windows/Linux/UNIX/OS2) and Mac. The title should have just said "computers" instead of PC.

 

[Nobina]

What PC shipments? Did you mean gadgets? I think it's the latter, because Apple's PC shipments are far behind those companies.

I don't see how tablets suddenly count as PC-s. They don't, because they aren't.

I have a bad feeling about Apple for this year. It feels that when iPhone 6 is announced they will not have anything up their sleeve, just mundane screen size changes, and overly terribly predictable.

I do want to be wrong in that, but have little hope for that. And if they do not improve on the DPI, then for me they are done for. 326 vs 540 from other companies isn't much of a competition.

The thing with iPhone is that fans will buy it even if it had worse specs than the previous iPhone. There's no need for anything up their sleeve, unfortunately.

I agree that tablets shouldn't count as PCs since they are just toys compared to desktop PCs.

 

[Guest]

At this point, specs don't really matter. The iPhone has a 64 bit chip and the Retina display still looks great. The bigger screen size will make people who have stuck with the Apple ecosystem happy. I think the biggest improvement Apple should make (probably won't happen) is a microSD slot to expand the memory for all the movies and music people buy on iTunes.

 

[Mister_K]

MAC is no a PC? That's a news to me. Also it seems that liking and quoting is broken (unless my browser is derping out?)

 

[Railman]

At this point, specs don't really matter. The iPhone has a 64 bit chip and the Retina display still looks great. The bigger screen size will make people who have stuck with the Apple ecosystem happy. I think the biggest improvement Apple should make (probably won't happen) is a microSD slot to expand the memory for all the movies and music people buy on iTunes.

That is unlikely as it seems we are being forced to adopt the Cloud

 

[Guest]

It's not that Macs aren't PCs, it's that iPads aren't PCs. A tablet is more akin to a larger, more powerful smartphone than to a desktop PC that can run true productivity programs natively.

 

[Guest]

Sure, sure...lets adjust the headline and the graphs in whatever way needed to show apple on top

 

[MonsterZero]

This report is fluffed with bullshit, of course if you include phones and tablets Apple will sway the numbers, but if you are talking actual computers as in PC, then Lenovo clearly has the lead.

Typical Apple bullshit to try and show everyone they are still relevant.

 

[soulsassassin]

That's a very common mistake that many users have been trying to argue for. The human eye needs about 1000 DPI for the screen to be indistinguishable from reality. And that's the true retina density, not some Apple marketing who decided to introduce one based on hard to see pixels.

There is plenty of room for further improvements, and 4K is touted to be available in mobile phones sometime next year.

1000dpi really ? on a 5inch screen as I said its useless at least with the technology we have now most of the SoCs available right now barley handle 4K res not to mention how much battery you need to keep the phone on