Research firm Canalys on Wednesday issued its view of the fourth quarter of 2010, reporting 19% PC industry growth worldwide over the previous year and putting Apple in the number three slot, when iPads and other tablets are included. Apple held 10.8% of the worldwide market and saw the number of units shipped leap 241% over the prior year, when the iPad wasn’t available.
The company said in its press release: “Canalys urges vendors to accept new market realities, by recognizing pads as an integral new component of the overall PC landscape. Unlike other analyst companies, Canalys incorporates pad shipments, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Apple’s iPad, in its total PC market report.”
Senior analyst Daryl Chiam said: “Any argument that a pad is not a PC is simply out of sync. With screen sizes of seven inches or above, ample processing power, and a growing number of applications, pads offer a computing experience comparable to netbooks. They compete for the same customers and will happily coexist. As with smart phones, some users will require a physical keyboard, while others will do without.”
He added: “Each new product category typically causes a significant shift in market shares. Apple is benefiting from pads, just as Acer, Samsung and Asus previously did with netbooks. The PC industry has always evolved this way, starting when Toshiba and Compaq rode high on the original notebook wave.”