“PC sales for the fourth quarter of 2011 proved disappointing, with shipments falling by 1.4 percent year over year, according to preliminary figures from Gartner,” Ted Samson reports for InfoWorld.
“Economic uncertainty and hard-drive shortages played roles in that dip but don’t fully explain away why HP’s PC sales were disproportionately disappointing for the quarter, whereas Apple’s were quite impressive,” Samson reports. “The answer may partially lie in the soaring interest in tablets and smartphones, along with general consumer confusion about Ultrabooks.”
Samson reports, “There’s also ‘”the halo effect,’ which has arguably helped boost Mac sales ever since the iPod caught on. The theory beyond the halo effect says, if customers fall in love with one of a company’s products they are more likely to purchase other products from the company. Following that logic, the iPod has helped boost Mac sales among consumers over the past few years. Combining the halo effect with the trend toward consumerization of IT means that consumers and professionals who are hungrily grabbing up iPhones and iPads are also gravitating toward Macs. Those also tend to be the folks who can more readily afford pricier Mac hardware, another factor boosting Apple PC sales the past holiday season.”
Read more in the full article here.
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