Apple Is World's Largest PC Maker--If You Count iPads as PCs

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Market researchers at Canalys have put out a new report that claims Apple is the world’s largest PC maker. They reached that conclusion because Canalys counts tablets, such as the iPad, in their PC market numbers.

PCMag’s Angela Moscaritolo reported, “Apple isn’t just a leader in the smartphone market — it also holds the top spot among all other PC makers, according to new data from Canalys. The market research firm came to that conclusion, however, because it counts tablets in the same category as desktops, laptops, and notebooks. Overall, worldwide PC shipments increased 12 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2012 to reach 134 million units, with tablets making up a third of that number.”

Brian X. Chen with The New York Times added, “Apple led the computer market with 22.9 million iPads and 4.1 million Macs sold. Hewlett-Packard was in a distant second place with 15 million PCs shipped, and Lenovo shipped about 14.8 million computers. Amazon and Samsung are quickly gaining traction in the computer market with their tablets. Amazon shipped 4.6 million tablets, including its Kindle Fire, over the quarter, and Samsung shipped 7.6 million.”

SlashGear’s Chris Burns noted, “For the first time in the top five in the history of the time Canalys has been analyzing such things, Samsung has broken into the top 5 for PC sales worldwide, edging out Dell with a 9% share – that’s 11.7 million PCs. It’s worth noting that Canalys has seen neither the launch of Windows 8 or holiday sales (in Europe and/or the USA) have a real effect on worldwide shipments of PCs.”

CNET’s Brooke Crothers observed, “There were harsh words for Microsoft’s tablet efforts. Canalys gave Microsoft a three percent tablet share in the fourth quarter, with shipments of just over 720,000 Windows RT Surface tablets. ‘The outlook for Windows RT appears bleak,’ according to Canalys.”