Apple fifth (sort of) in January desktop retail sales

NPD Group/NPD Techworld reports that Apple was number five among desktop computer manufacturers for January in dollar terms, according to Bloomberg. Apple had 3.8 percent of the “desktop” category. Number one was Compaq with 31.8 percent, number two was Hewlett Packard with 30.9 percent, number three was emachines with 14.3%, and number four was IBM with 7.8 percent. Apple did not place in the top five among laptop makers. They were Toshiba (26.6 percent), Compaq (24.3 percent), IBM (19.9 percent), HP (11.4 percent), and Sony (8.4 percent). The report also does not mention unit sales figures, instead it’s ranked by total dollar volume and unit share, which is why Dell doesn’t show up at all. The list was based on top retail hardware sales. Read the Bloomberg article here.

6 Comments

  1. Does this really mean 3.8%? By no means. Measuring retail sales is so outdated and of little use to Apple and others for a variety of other ways consumers now purchase which are not included in these statistics:
    1. Apple’s Web Site Sales
    2. Other web outlets (MacMall, MacConnection, etc…)
    3. Apple Retail Stores (are NOT included in these statistics as Apple does not hand out their retail store numbers).

    This number probably only represents half of Apple’s consumer sales – if that.

    Regards,

    Mark

  2. Making Assumptions…

    “Retail” doesn’t necessarily mean “Over the counter”. It also can mean “sold to end users”. By that definition, all of Apple’s web sales are also included. For example: retail vs wholesale – all end user sales are ‘retail’ as opposed to wholesale which are sales to retailers.

    They might also split it retail vs government/school.

    Nothing in the Bloomberg article defined the term, so there’s no way to know which meaning it had. The figure of 3.8% is roughly in line with every other total sales figure I’ve seen for Apple, so it’s not impossible that number is real.

  3. This ranking is total Bullsh*t. Everybody knows that Dell is the TOP seller of Beige WINTEL Boxes, outselling Compaq/HP and they don’t even show up on the list.
    Second, if it was all about volume sales charts in Automotive News would rank car sales of Volvo/Jaguar/BMW/MB/Acura in the same market with Hyundai/Ford/Toyota. You know why they don’t, because IT DOESN’T MEAN A THING.
    If you want to see the important stats look at the average profit per sale of these companies and you will see they are making very little, if anything on those $599 Wal-Mart specials.

  4. “Everybody knows that Dell is the TOP seller of Beige WINTEL Boxes, outselling Compaq/HP and they don’t even show up on the list.”

    Dell WAS the TOP seller, but has lost to HPaq once again… you need to keep up with the times!!!

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