Mac sales are doing very well, thanks to the “Halo Effect” of iPads and iPhones [atualizado: ou não]

The PC industry as a whole is suffering from the sharp drop in computer sales, after all, we are in the post-PC era. Yes, computers are still essential for many of us. I don't imagine myself working all day with just tablets and smartphones, even though they solve a lot when I'm on the move.

Of course, the American market does not represent the global reality, but it certainly gives us a great picture.

Gartner Survey - PC Sales in Q4 2013

According to the latest survey by Gartner, Apple's market share in the United States increased 28.5% compared to the last quarter of 2013 with that of 2012. With that, Ma now has 13.7% of market share in your home country.

Note that, apart from it, only Dell and Lenovo managed to sell more computers in the Q4 of 2013 than in the same period in 2012, still a digit growth, far from that achieved by Apple.

Gartner Survey - PC Sales in Q4 2013

If we take the global numbers, we see that Apple does not even appear in the top five, something normal since it never made it on that list. But it is worth comparing the growth of Dell and Lenovo and the fall of HP in the USA with their performance in the world to give us an idea that the scenario is not really good for anyone, whether in the American or global market even if growth, still more in lean times, be a good performance.

How did Apple achieve this? to which I return to the first paragraph. It is undeniable that many domestic consumers are putting their computers aside, switching to iPad tablets or smartphones as the main tool. Stop and think: your father / your mother, your uncle / your aunt that friend that is not geek so and only need access to social networks, some productivity apps, email and browser. For them, an iPad or a smartphone solves the problem, cheaper, takes up less space

On the other hand, office work when we sit eight or more hours a day to perform tasks almost necessarily still needs a computer, after all, agility is everything and a big screen, physical keyboard and mouse / trackpad is still a killer combination for that . Taking into account that iPads and iPhones continue to sell like water in the desert, the “Halo Effect” plays its role very well.

No wonder, for example, that 25% of Cisco employees use MacBooks something unimaginable a few years ago. According to the firm Forrester, 8% of the global market of companies / governments using Apple iPhones computers and tablets are not part of this account, but the number could rise to 11% in a very short period (2015).

What Apple does today is something that very few companies can achieve: while their products compete with each other (iPads cannibalize sales of Macs, just as iPhones cannibalize sales of iPods), they also boost sales for each other.

(via MacRumors: 1, 2)

Update · 01/10/2014 s 00:13

While Gartner claims that Mac sales increased well in the fourth quarter of 2013, IDC goes the opposite way.

IDC Survey - PC Sales in Q4 2013

According to her, Ma's computer sales were 5.7% compared to the same period in 2012, which puts the company in fourth place, losing its position to Lenovo! That's right: on the one hand, we have growth of 28.5%; on the other, a 5.7% drop. Does it make any sense?

One possible explanation would be if Gartner's research took into account tablets, while IDC's research was restricted to desktops and notebooks only. But no, Gartner doesn't * count * iPads in its study either.

IDC Survey - PC Sales in Q4 2013

The curious thing is that if we compare the numbers of other manufacturers both in the graph restricted to the USA and globally, we find variations (something completely normal), but none as significant as what we see with the numbers from Apple!

Who's right? We will have a better idea of ​​this on January 27, when Ma discloses the financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2014 (which is equivalent to the last months of 2013).

(via 9to5Mac)