Growing sales of Apple iOS devices are helping reshape the computing landscape. Yearly sales between iOS devices and Windows computers are now tied, according to Menlo Park venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. And if the trend continues, sales of iOS devices will soon overtake Windows PCs.
Apple's Mac OS X computers make up less than 13.4 percent of the market, behind Dell and HP. But the company sold 57.9 million iOS devices – which includes iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches – in its third-quarter. While Apple's mobile ecosystem made record-breaking gains, sales of Windows computers peaked in June 2011 and have slowly but steadily declined since.
In general, mobile device sales will grow tremendously in the next few years, with CCS Insight forecasting 2.35 billion smartphones sales in 2019.
In contrast, global PC shipments saw the sharpest decline in close to two years during the second quarter of 2015 – 9.5% according to Gartner and 11.8% according to IDC. Although IDC expects PC sales to continue to decline 1-2% on a yearly basis through 2018, the next several months could be telling as Microsoft is gearing up to launch Windows 10 in just a few days.
Is the Windows PC doomed? We don't think so. But millions of people, who might have before bought a new Windows computer, appear to be keen on spending their money on an Apple iOS device instead, and that's not even counting the millions who buy Android tablets and smartphones.