Canalys, a research firm that includes tablets in its assessments of the PC market, said this week that the world’s leading smartphone and tablet makers continue to erode the former market dominance of leading desktop and laptop makers.
According to the latest market research and corresponding data from Canalys, the client computing market climbed 17.9% in Q4 of 2013 to 158 million units.
Not surprisingly, Apple claimed the largest market share with 19.5%. Consequently, Apple’s PC market share now leads that of Dell’s and even HP’s.
Apple’s 26 million iPads gave it 34% of the tablet market, up from 27% in the prior quarter, the firm said, helped by the introduction of the iPad “Air” and the refresh of the iPad Mini in October. In total, Apple’s tablet and PC units combined added up to 30.87 million units, up 15% from the prior-year period.
Barron’s reported Wednesday that these impressive numbers also put Apple ahead of Lenovo, which placed second with an 11.8% market share.
With regard to Android, the outlook is positive. “Competition is mounting and Android tablets are falling in price, which will put pressure on Apple’s market share in 2014,” researchers at Canalys project.
