iPad Takes Apple to Top of Mobile PC Market

The iPad has given Apple the edge in the mobile PC market, as the DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report showed that Apple has managed to overtake HP, accounting for a 17.2% share of worldwide mobile PC shipments in Q4 2010.

In its busy fourth quarter of 2010, Apple shipped more than 10.2 million notebook and tablet PCs combined, nearly a million more units than HP. While HP was bumped down to second place, Acer Group, Dell, and Toshiba took second, third, and fourth place, respectively. These top five brands combined accounted for 65.4% of the total mobile PC market, according to the report.

The comparison is somewhat apples to oranges, however, as tablets are not the same as mobile computers (netbooks and notebooks) and should not be considered as such. Yet, both the iPad and Apple's notebooks are being counted towards the company's total mobile PC shipments. Even if tablets were lumped into the same category as mobile PCs, it's still an uneven comparison, as HP doesn't have a tablet (yet) that it can count towards its total mobile PC shipments. Perhaps after the Touchpad is released and included in HP's totals in these reports, this will be a more level assessment.

Source: DisplaySearch