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发帖数: 26623 | 1 Here's something unexpected: Of the five major PC makers in the United
States, Apple was the only one whose shipments fell last quarter.
Overall U.S. PC shipments grew by 3.5% in the third quarter, according to
tech consultancy Gartner. While Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500), Dell (
DELL, Fortune 500), Lenovo and Toshiba all grew their shipments over last
year, Apple's fell by 2.3%.
It might be even worse than that. If you ask Gartner's rival consultancy IDC
, Macintosh shipments fell by more than 11%.
Apple's Macintosh shipments are difficult to estimate. We won't get an
official number until Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) releases its quarterly
financial statement on Oct. 28.
But the Mac's decline is perplexing. It could be attributable to the fact
that Apple hasn't issued a major update to its MacBook Air line in nearly
two years, and it has devoted most of its energies towards the iPhone and
iPad. Still, Apple hit a company high for PC market share just a year ago,
capturing 14.2% of the market. This year, it only has 13.4% of the market.
Related story: Microsoft Surface 2 is hardly an afterthought
For Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Windows PC makers, the positive numbers
are better than expected but not terribly surprising. The third quarter is
when PC makers begin their big "back to school" marketing push in the United
States, and Windows 8 has had nearly a year to make its way onto PCs.
The growth in PC shipments was enough to give Gartner analyst Mikakio
Kitagawa some hope that the industry could be ready to take a breather from
its three-year slump. And though tablets may still be on the rise, the PC
could be finding its footing once again.
Death of the PC claims more victims
"The U.S. market may have passed the worst declining stage," said Kitagawa
in a statement. "Tablets will continue to impact the PC market, but the U.S.
PC market will see a more moderate decrease rather than a steep decline in
the next two years."
Worldwide, the PC market faced a different story. Though the three largest
PC manufacturers managed squeeze out shipment gains, the rest of the
industry wasn't so lucky. Global PC sales fell nearly 9% year over year,
according to Gartner.
That's not nearly as bad as the 14% decline the market experienced last
quarter, but it's a big decline nonetheless.
Lenovo, HP and Dell grew PC shipments by between 1% and 3% globally. But
Asus and Acer weren't so lucky, each victims of a double digit backslide. |
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