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Apples mobile PC business is booming, thanks mainly to exploding iPad sales, which accounted for nearly 80 percent of the companys overall mobile PC sales, according to figures from research firm NPD. Apples iPad sales reached more than 13.6 million units in the first quarter of 2012, for 162 percent year-over-year growth. Overall, the company shipped nearly 17.2 million mobile PCs in that period, representing 118 percent year-over-year growth.
Strong tablet sales allowed Apple to dominate mobile PC market share for the quarter, with 22.5 percent. Its next-closest competitor, Hewlett-Packard shipped just 8.9 million mobile PCs for an 11.6 percent market share. Acer Group followed in third place, with 6.9 million units shipped and a market share of 9 percent, while Lenovo followed with 5.9 million units sold and a 7.7 percent market share. Dell rounded out the top five with 5.6 million units shipped and a 7.3 percent market share.
Apple completely dominated the tablet market in the first quarter, boasting a stunning 62.8 percent market share while shipping 13.6 million iPads. Samsung trailed far behind in second place, with 1.6 million tablets shipped and a market share of 7.5 percent. Amazon followed a distant third with 900,000 tablets shipped for a 4 percent share, followed by BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion and Asus, which both sold 500,000 tablets for a 2.3 percent market share.
Total mobile PC shipments in the first quarter of 2012 reached 76.2 million units, a seasonal drop of 15 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. However, shipments grew 30 percent year-over-year, with tablet PCs growing 124 percent and notebooks and mini-notes growing 12 percent, suggesting the tablet market has room to grow. The report also noted Chinas strong quarter-over-quarter growth.
The China region had sequential quarter shipment growth, achieving 13 percent for mobile PCs overall, 12 percent for notebook and mini-note PCs, and 16 percent for tablet PCs, Richard Shim, NPD DisplaySearch senior analyst, said in a prepared statement. This is noteworthy, given the sequential declines in all other regions as well as the declines in other product categories, including TVs and monitors.
In the mini-notebook and notebook segment, HP posted year-over-year growth of 700,000 units and led the market with 8.9 million units shipped, for an overall share of 16.2 percent. Acer followed with 6.5 million units shipped for a market share of 11.9 percent, followed by Lenovo (5.8 million units shipped and a 10.6 percent market share), Dell (5.6 million units and a 10.2 percent share) and Asus, which shipped 4.4 million units for an 8.1 percent market share.