Apple Corners 5% of U.S. PC Market

Fueled by a 30 percent year-over-year growth rate, Apple (AAPL) shipments hit 741,000 units in the first quarter, up from 570,000 units from a year ago.

And according to Gartner, that tally equates to 5 percent market share in the U.S. PC market, up a percentage point from this time a year ago.

As far as growth goes, Apple grew the fastest of the U.S. PC makers in shipments with a 30 percent growth rate (Techmeme). Toshiba (TOSBF.PK) grew at a 26.8 percent clip in shipments with Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) delivering growth of 25.8 percent. Toshiba and Apple, however, are working off of much smaller bases.

Dell (DELL) had a rough time in the first quarter as market share plunged from 33.9 percent to 27.9 percent. Shipment growth for Dell was down 15.5 percent.  First quarter market share stats are above.

Globally, HP was top dog with market share of 17.6 percent, followed by Dell at 13.9 percent. Acer had 6.8 market share followed by Lenovo (LNVGY) at 6.3 percent.

Comments

[Sr. Pessimist:]

Computing is up for a pretty big metamorphosis. Processors and memory are smaller and more powerful. Software is free where it used to exceed the price of all else on the computer. Cell phones will be more powerful next year than desktops were this year. More people will be on the Internet with wireless CLDC 1.1 devices than will be on with desktops sitting on desk tops. Storage is changing from a single discrete disk to a distributed array for cost-cutting. The best applications are available on the Internet, not the box at your retail store. Bandwidth can be handled by the lines but not the backbone, and we're approaching the requirement for a new structure altogether for the global network. Money is not made from the consumer, but from the corporation. This here about Dell is probably as short-lived as anything in tech. Apple is showing the success of things closer to a sexy little 3G cell phone.

2007 Apr 20 11:00 AM