Canalys today announced that the PC market grew 7% in Q1 2011, as the pad market, led by Apple’s iPad, continued to bolster growth. Once again, Apple set the standard in the pad market, mainly at the expense of notebook and netbook shipments, as pads competed for a share of consumer IT spend.
During the first quarter of this year, pad shipments reached 6.4 million units worldwide. Apple accounted for 74% of these shipments, while other vendors struggled to bring competitive products to market. Canalys expects that next quarter will see a significant change in the market, with products appearing from Acer, Asus, LG and RIM.
Apple continued with its strategy to dominate the pad market, with the iPad or iPad 2 available in 59 markets by the end of Q1. A combination of strong Q4 sales and the announcement of the iPad 2’s launch across major markets at the end of March contributed to Apple’s iPad shipments being down 31% sequentially. The full impact of the iPad 2 launch will not register until subsequent quarters, as Apple gets the product into the hands of consumers. While pad sales continued to lift Apple’s results, PC vendors with a focus on the consumer netbook and notebook market, such as Acer and Asus, did not fare so well.
Overstocked retail channels and unsteady consumer confidence in major European countries and the United States cast a shadow over the potential for notebook market growth during the remainder of 2011. Likewise, the tsunami and earthquakes in Japan led to an 8% slowdown in the local PC market there. The natural disasters also contributed to supply chain disruption and uncertainty – highlighted in many IT vendors’ quarterly financial reports – the consequences of which will continue to be felt in the second half of the year.
“Taking into consideration the iPad’s ‘halo effect’ on the company’s other products, Apple has grown considerably in most markets worldwide,” said Canalys Analyst Tim Coulling, in the press release. “As the iPad 2 and its competitors continue to roll out, we expect pad sales to propel PC market growth for the rest of the year.”
The findings of a recent consumer survey by Canalys show that current pad usage resembles that of a PC, rather than a media player or e-book reader. After web browsing, both pad owners and non-owners in Western Europe, linked pad usage to e-mail/messaging and social networking. Among pad owners, all three categories rated much higher than e-book reading and video watching. Non-owners, however, expected e-mail/messaging, e-book reading, and video watching to top pad usage after web browsing. (In February 2011, Canalys conducted an online survey of 1,622 consumers in Germany and the UK, to understand their use of and attitudes toward mobile devices, mobile apps and app stores.)
At least 10% of Western European pad owners surveyed by Canalys claimed to use over 24 different application categories, spread across communications, entertainment, leisure/lifestyle and financial/business. Educational apps were the only exception, only used by about 8% of pad owners.
iPad owners used a significantly wider range of categories than other pad users. The most popular apps among non-iPad owners tended to be relatively functional ones, such as e-mail, social networking, news and banking. While iPad owners also used these apps, they reported a much higher use of general web browsing and video consumption.
Feedback from potential pad owners shows how pad marketing campaigns, some of which refer to the devices as ‘media tablets’, have influenced their perceptions. In reality, pads have a wide range of uses. While browsing, for example, does include finding and consuming content, it also includes many other activities.
“This broad usage pattern reinforces the pad’s role as a general-purpose computing device, and much more than just a consumption device,” Coulling added. “The pad represents a real threat to PC and consumer electronics vendors, as it is capable of replacing devices in a range of other categories.”
Canalys attributes differences between iPad and non-iPad users to screen size, user experience, and app inventory. While the iPad has a 10″ screen, a large proportion of other pads have 7″ screens. There is evidence from video service providers, such as MobiTV, that the time consumers spend watching video on different devices is directly proportional to screen size. Non-iPad users’ choice of e-book reading over video watching as the most valuable app by four times as many respondents supports this conclusion.
“Vendors should continue to promote content consumption as an important benefit of pads, especially as ownership spreads to older consumers, while highlighting other uses of the device and preloading advanced browsers and localized messaging and social networking apps,” said Canalys Chief Analyst Adam Daum, in the press release. “Pad app stores also need to offer a broader inventory of both apps and content designed to take full advantage of a pad’s size and functionality.”
“Beyond a one-stop sales opportunity, content and apps provide vendors with the chance to drive new revenue streams,” said Daum. “Apple’s ecosystem suggests that pad owners will generate substantially higher average revenue from app and content sales than smart phone users. Through a combination of appropriate device marketing and app store strategy, device vendors can use apps and content to build customer loyalty.”
About Canalys Netpad Analysis
Canalys was the first analyst company to include pads within its PC market results. For hardware and software vendors, as well as service providers, this service tracks desktops, netbooks, notebooks and pads, as well as their routes to market. Canalys delivers overall volume forecasts and market shares for all PC categories. Canalys also monitors the changing relationships between operators and vendors, and the products and tariffs being offered, to support its customers’ strategic planning.
Source: Canalys
Related article:
Canalys unafraid to count iPad, puts Apple third in worldwide PC market share – January 26, 2011
We’re number 4! We’re number 4!
Sure makes a difference in market share numbers when you accept that the iPad is a computer.
What is with the ridiculous naming of the category pads in this article. There is only one pad, the iPad. The rest are simple plastic tablets attempting to compete.
Bloodbath.
That’s telling. They are using the term “pad” instead of “tablet”. It’s like using “Kleenex” vs. “Puffs”.
The standings and the shipments is not the important number, the growth column is pretty amazing. +187% is very impressive on its own, but particularly noteworthy when compared to the negative or minimal numbers of the 3 leaders. Lenovo’s 17% growth is interesting too. How many people have they convinced to call them on the LePhone and come down to their LePad? LePew!
Apple will be #2 globally this quarter as the iPad’s delayed orders get fulfilled. That bump should easily add 5M units to Apple’s total putting them above Dell and Acer, and right on the tail of HP.
PC growth was 0.3% without Apple.
Apple’s increase was 5.5M, compared to the others’ 253K. In other words, Apple’s increase was 22x greater, than the rest of the market.
Worse, Canalys is counting shipments not sales. Apple sold 5.1M iPads not 4.7M shipped. The other 1.7M shipped were Xooms and Galaxies and others sitting on store shelves. Remember the Xoom launched in Q1 so they were filling the channel.
But…but…the iPad is only for consumption
(someone had to say this, at least one last time)
Interesting perspective. In terms of cost an iPad is as much as a netbook or cheap pc so I think it is correct to count it as one.
Rounding error…
If you count netbooks, then it only makes sense to count tablets, too. I find it interesting that other vendors are finding it difficult to compete on price with the iPad/iPad2. Granted the internals are different, but it makes me wonder just how crappy netbooks are when companies were selling them for $200 to $300.
Do netbooks have real hard drives or flash memory?
What apple have been very succesful at is reusing r&d on one product for another.
The motherboard for the iPad is the same in principle to that of an iPhone. The layout might be different but that’s about it.
With the old iPad it was identical to the iPhone 4. Combined apple have sold 60-70m units. Their component pricing is very good at that point.
Nobody sells that many of one type of netbook. They simply can’t compete.
Dell, you are looming very large in Apple’s sights! We took your profits. Now we will take your position in terms of worldwide market share.
I ain’t scared. Dell’s lead is too large, and the whole Mac upsurge in sales will fade as soon as people start forgetting the trendy “Get A Mac” ads.
You will all be buying Dells soon. Just you wait…
Apple will pass Dell and Acer by this summer. Acer and Dell are dropping like a rock and Apple will jump past the 33.9% difference at the 188% a year growth rate. And Apple is ramped up the manufacturing rate. Apple keeps stating that they could have sold more if they could have made more.
And yet the growth of my Apple stock limps along. People and the talking heads really can’t explain the pressure being put on Apple’s stock to hold it down while the big boys load up.
Again, the Apple stock is the top volume of dollars trading on the NASDAC.
http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/marketsummary/screener.asp?exchange=15&view=7&lookup=Look+Up
If the total number world wide does not change and Apple only doubles their total sales, Apple’s 9.5% will be 19.1%. That is 1 OUT OF EVERY 5.
If the same thing happens the next year, Apple will have 38.2% of the world market!!! The Apple Tsunami is here!
Keep in mind that the iPad killers are 1 or 2 years away (in their dreams).
What market does Apple want next?
I think behind the times, dumb eggheads like Cornell University keep Dell in the #3 spot alone.
IT’s to Admin Aids: No you can NOT have a Mac, we do not support those in this dept, only faculty if they demand one. [And then we don’t know what we’re doing to support it intelligently because we’re PC fanboys].
Admin: But it’s taking me 3x as long to produce my work on this PC! 20 min to boot up, and watch it lock up all day long.
IT: Sorry!
Read between the lines: “Bill Gates just bought us a damn building, we’re using PC’s no matter how inefficient they are!”
yeah.
I’ve told you before – become an Aggie and work at the Geneva Experiment Station. They’ve been a Mac outfit since 1984! If someone wants/needs Windows, that is the special case.
It’s just the idiots in Ithaca you are dealing with, not the whole institution.