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TMO Reports - Apple U.S. PC Market Share Up .5% to 5th Spot, Study Shows

by , 4:00 PM EDT, April 15th, 2005

Apple Computer took a jump from 3.2% to 3.7% in U.S. PC market share for the first quarter of 2005, according to the Gartner Dataquest research firm. The increase in shipments of Macs now puts Apple in fifth place among the top manufacturers.

Apple shipped 571,000 Macs to capture 3.7% of the market share, compared to 393,000, or 2.6% in the same quarter a year ago. Compared to the previous quarter, Apple market share expanded 0.5% from Q4 of 2004.Compared to a year ago, Apple unit shipments jumped 45.1% -- more than any of the top five U.S. PC makers, Gartner said.

"It was a great quarter for Apple," Charles Smulders, vice president of Gartner's Computing Platforms Worldwide Group, told The Mac Observer Friday. "It was driven primarily by sales of the consumer iMac category, which includes the Mac mini. They also had strong PowerBook sales as well."

Apple announced the Mac mini on January 11 and began selling it on Saturday, Jan. 22 in the U.S. and worldwide on Saturday, Jan. 29.

With only 69 days to sell the Mac mini in the fiscal second-quarter instead of 90 days, Mr. Smulders said the increase in market share, together with the popularity of the Mac mini was "impressive," but didn't want to crown the newest consumer Mac a success just yet.

"I remember the first quarter of sales for the Mac Cube were good too," he commented. "I think if we get a continuing increase in market share and units shipped this quarter and in the third quarter as much as we did in the calendar first quarter, I think we can then say the Mac mini is a success. This report is like the first weekend of a new movie. We've got to see if it's still popular next week."

Among other PC makers, Dell remains in the number one position, having sold 4.87 million PCs in the U.S. for a 32.0% share -- an 8.5% improvement for the same quarter a year ago. HP was second at 2.6 million units shipped, or a 17.2% market share. Gateway was third with a market share of 5.4% and IBM was fourth at 4.1%.

Of interest: Mr. Smulders said there had been "extremely strong demand" for laptop PCs in the first quarter across the U.S. and that was certain to have helped Apple's 3.7% market share. In the U.S. market, lower pricing drove sales of notebooks in the first quarter, however it was not enough to offset the declines in desktop PC shipments.

Preliminary market share figures for worldwide were also released, but Apple did not make the top five.

Dell was first worldwide, shipping 8.52 million units for a 16.9% market share. HP was second, shipping 6.99 million for a 13.9% share, IBM was third at 2.3 million units, or 4.6% share, and Fujitsu/Siemens was fourth with 2.0 million units shipped, or a 4.1% market share.

A final list for worldwide and U.S. will be released by Gartner in mid-May. The firms numbers are preliminary results and include the Americas segment of North, South and Central America. PCs in this category include deskbased PCs, mobile PCs and x86 servers.

Mr. Smulders noted that Dell's worldwide growth rate fell below 20% for the first time in 10 quarters, pulled down by weaker performance in the U.S. market. Still, Dell's shipments grew faster than the market average of 13.7%.

"I think Dell's drop off in growth is due to their reliance on the U.S. market, which was weaker, together with a greater focus on maintaining profitability rather than share during the quarter," Mr. Smulder commented. "I think this development will spur more discussions as to whether the direct sales model can compete with the low end of the PC market, such as say the Apple Mac mini."

Observer Comments

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View Name:RealityCheck -   Troll Posts: 392 Joined: 06 May 2004
Subject: Apple Stock Down 22% - Another 5% Drop Today
Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1937 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Subject:

lol

View Name:Guest
Subject: IBM Down 8.3%! Sun Down 7.53%!
View Name:Guest
Subject: RC
View Name:Guest
Subject: 78% percent are quite happy
View Name:Guest
Subject: Comic book guy...
View Name:Guest
Subject: RC rides on...
View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject: Laughing all the way to the bank
Close Name:RaelityCheck Posts: 4 Joined: 15 Apr 2005
Subject: More Macs Are Good

Wow! It looks like the rest of the world is finally catching on. I can't believe I was wrong about this. I've spent all this time trying to make people think Macs were bad and no one seems to be listening. Maybe I should start finding Pixar sites and convince them that DreamWorks films are much better. I mean I've seen Robotz 8 times and I just can't get enough of it.

Close Name:kenaustus Posts: 601 Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Subject: Look at the DOW RC

May break 10K on Monday - the wrong way. It ain't just AAPL and there is no telling how far down it will go.

You weren't per chance W's Econ Prof, were you?

Close Name:AyaSofya Posts: 137 Joined: 11 May 2004
Subject: I took a gamble

I took a gamble not to long ago when Apple stock was high and decided not to sell then even though it would have doubled my investment. The stock is down a bit now, but I think that I will gamble again in the hopes it will continue to rise.

I am afraid to take the Simpson's personality test and find out that I am Principle Skinner, Reverend Lovejoy, or Ned Flanders.

Quote
Guest wrote:
78% of Apple stockholders are not selling today.

I have been trying to figure out who is this chucklehead RC. Using this test http://www.matthewbarr.co.uk/simpsons I am pretty sure that he is the Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons http://www.snpp.com/guides/cbg.file.html

View Name:Guest
Subject: Told You So RC
View Name:Guest
Subject: RC not even trying
View Name:Guest
Subject: Gateway, IBM are next!!
Close Name:jhonka Posts: 77 Joined: 05 Sep 2003
Subject: huh?

Quote
RealityCheck wrote:
Sorry, investors aren't fooled my a minor blip in Mac sales caused by Mac fanatics replacing their old Macs with Mac minis. Apple stock is off more than 22% from recent highs, and dropped another 5% today alone. And please stop with the RDF that its a bad economy, Apple stock is down twice as much as the tech averages.

"Minor blip"? Apple's sales have been over 1 million each of the last two quarters. Apple has seen year-over-year sales increases for the ;ast six quarters. "Minor blip" my ass.

View Name:Guest
Subject: RC was fired by Steve Job!
View Name:Guest
Subject: so whats going on then?
View Name:Guest
Subject: RC a month ago
View Name:Guest
Subject: Loser
Close Name:sdf Posts: 6 Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Subject: I think he's...

Arlo Rose or Perry Clark.

Close Name:Nieztsche Posts: 1 Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Subject: Apple not only stock down....

The Dow has dropped almost 180 points...

Close Name:rea1itycheck Posts: 23 Joined: 27 Jan 2005
Subject: News Flash: I'm a TMO plant.

Their plan to plant me as an @ss troll worked beautifully. People just can't help but click on the articled to refute my @ss hat ways.

More page click means mo money for TMO, and by extension ME!!!

Sorry iLemmings, you are too easily manipulated my the TMO staff. Muhhaahaahaa....

RealityCheck

Close Name:Biff Posts: 1479 Joined: 08 Apr 2004
Subject:

An increase in RC's favorite metric! Suddenly RC doesn't care about market share. LOL.

View Name:Guest
Subject: Re: Loser
View Name:Guest
Subject:
Close Name:Mace Posts: 9023 Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Subject:

If no halo effect, unit sale of Mac should be around 950k-970k. An unit sale of 1070k is sufficient evidence of existence of halo effect. Check with DawnTreader, we debated this after Q1 result so is not an after-the-occurence comment.

I believe Mac is on the way to capture up to 4.5% marketshare in US in 2005.

Prediction: 3.2% (Q1), 3.7% (Q2), 4% (Q3), 4.5% (Q4).

View Name:Guest
Subject: RC was fired by Steve Jobs!
View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject: so called "switcher"
Close Name:mrmgraphics Posts: 824 Joined: 05 Sep 2003
Subject: the Apple and TMO community

+

Quote
Guest wrote:
Quote
Anonymous wrote:

Blow me, @asshat.

You don't reflect the supposed helpful, friendly Apple community I heard so much about. You have just lost a potential switcher. It's this arrogance with Mac fans I hate. They will always be cussing, arrogant fools.

Guest, the "helpful, friendly" Apple community you've heard so much about is both alive and extremely well here on TMO. Don't let the words of one unregistered guest stand for all of the friendly and helpful words that I, along with other regsitered TMO members (and plenty of Guests, as well) will be more than happy to provide.

Registered, passowrd-protected members of TMO put their reputations at stake with every post. Unregistered, anonymous Guests do not.

To date, after nearly two years of registered participation and over 500 posts, plus daily viewing of news stories and forum topics, I have never known a registered member to get out of hand in any way (excluding RC, of course). And when a registered member apparantly does so, it is most often from a poorly-worded post. Other regsitered members express their concerns, and everything is worked out smoothly.

If you find this hard to believe, just post a technical question in any of the TMO Forum Labs. People here will jump at the chance to provide assistance and their personal experience to your problem. Post your questions in the Graphics and HTML forums, and I'll be one of them

As a veteran of the CompuServe Information Service (CI$ -- the online standard before AOL and the web blew it away), I can honestly say you won't find too many online communities on par with TMO. I certainly wouldn't spend so much time here -- on a beautiful Saturday evening in western PA, USA no less -- were it otherwise.

View Name:Guest
Subject: Re: the Apple and TMO community
View Name:Guest
Subject:
View Name:Guest
Subject:
Close Name:DawnTreader -   TMO Staff Posts: 13424 Joined: 04 Jan 2002
Subject:

It's been a long, long time since Apple was in the US top 5 among PC makers. I suppose the mergers of HP/Compaq and Gateway/eMachines helped the effort

I remember when Apple fell off the list many years ago and it's good to see the company fight its way back. As much as the sequential gains look good, the year-over-year gains is US share are quite impressive. It won't be long before Apple captures the number 4 spot and I'll say within 24 months Apple may best Gateway in the US market for PC shipments to move into the number 3 position in the States.

View Name:Guest
Subject: so mac users are suppose to shut up cause you say so?
View Name:Guest
Subject:
Close Name:zpok Posts: 80 Joined: 06 May 2004
Subject: Mine is bigger than yours

It is, really...

Which sums up three quarters of comments nowadays on TMO. The articles are great, and some comments are worth reading. Some...

View Name:Guest
Subject:
Close Name:kenaustus Posts: 601 Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Subject: Gateway?

Dawn Trader

If Gateway doesn't start making some healthy profits and improve their cash & debt positions Apple will move up a notch without selling more units.

Close Name:Mace Posts: 9023 Joined: 07 Aug 2003
Subject:

Kenaustus

Apple will move up two notches behind Dell and HP by next quarter. Marketshare of both Gateway and IBM will drop below 4% while Apple will up to more than 4%.

Close Name:DawnTreader -   TMO Staff Posts: 13424 Joined: 04 Jan 2002
Subject: Re: Gateway?

Quote
kenaustus wrote:
Dawn Trader

If Gateway doesn't start making some healthy profits and improve their cash & debt positions Apple will move up a notch without selling more units.


Gateway picked up huge unit volume (by Gateway standards) with the eMachines purchase. Gateway sold more units than Apple in the 4th calendar quarter but had less than a third of Apple's revenue.

The eMachines sales vaulted Gateway into the #3 spot. It will take a few/several quarters for Apple to outpace Gateway in the US market, but Apple should ovetake Gateway within the year for total unit shipments (US and international).

View Name:Guest
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View Name:Guest
Subject: the point is moot
View Name:Guest
Subject: