While the rest of the PC market seems to be drying up in Europe (down 11.4 percent this year over last), Apple seems to be bucking the trend in Western Europe, as they’re up 19.6 percent from 3Q10 – 3Q11. The only other company that posted positive growth was ASUS, which was up 20.3 percent.
The consumer market had the biggest impact as PC shipments in this segment declined 18 percent year-over-year. Over the last year as HP’s, and particularly Acer’s, dominance has begun to shrink, the next tier of vendors, headed by Samsung and Apple, have been making the consumer market much more competitive with increased choices on retailers’ shelves.
There was a lot of concern about Apple’s iPad cannibalizing the Mac market, but it looks like it’s not as bad as many pundits anticipated, at least for Apple Inc. During Apple’s last financial call, Tim Cook went on the record with “yes, we’re seeing cannibalization [of the Mac]. It’s showing up in two ways. Some people are electing to buy an iPad rather than a Mac. However, I think a larger percentage are choosing iPad over a Windows-based PC.” It looks like the consumer perspective is starting to change a little. Mac users see the iPad as an auxiliary device, but PC users may be looking at the iPad as a PC alternative, and that’s pretty huge.
Source: Gartner
