“Holiday sales failed to reinvigorate PC demand,” Credit Suisse analysts write via Barron’s. “Gartner’s preliminary results for fourth-quarter PC shipments of 82.6 million units imply a 6.9% year-over-year decline and 3.6% sequential growth, which is below our PC-unit estimate of 87.8 million units.”
“We find it somewhat surprising for the PC industry to have grown so modestly in the fourth quarter. As a result, 2013 PC shipments declined by 10%, which is the largest decline in the history of PCs and second consecutive year of unit declines, while this confirms our thesis, equally we believe there may have been an underestimation, which has occurred in the past,” Credit Suisse writes. “This quarter’s results indicate that PCs were likely a low priority on holiday shopping lists, as tablets continue to grow within the overall computer market.”
“Gartner preliminary data shows 28.5% year-over-year and 4.8% quarter-over-quarter growth and market share of 13.7% in the U.S. (up 70 basis points quarter-over-quarter), which suggests Mac demand continues to be relatively robust. We believe Apple has an about 22% share (73 million units) within the tablet market this year,” Credit Suisse writes. “We see Apple as well placed in the overall compute market with respect to our forecast of 341 million tablet shipments in calendar 2014, or over 50% of computer devices. Our target price of $525 implies an 11 times multiple on our calendar 2014 estimate and we note the company has fully taxed net cash of $91 billion.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Upside-down and backwards pretend Macs are selling like snotcakes lately, huh?
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Gartner: Apple’s U.S. Mac sales surge 28.5% as Windows PC market drops 7.5% – January 9, 2014