Thanks in large part to its iPad tablet computer, Apple has been crowned the king in mobile PC sales, according to an NPD report. NPD defines mobile PCs as tablet and laptop computers, the latter of which has been completely dominated by Apple’s iPad line of devices. Apple is estimated to have sold a whopping 17.2 million mobile PCs in Q1 2012, approximately 13.6 million of which were iPads. This number is up over 1.5 million from the 12 million Apple reported in their fiscal Q2 2012 earnings report from April.
At 17.2 million units sold, Apple amounted for 22.5% of the mobile PC industry in Q1, nearly double that of its nearest competitor, Hewlett-Packard (HP), which sold 8.9 million units (11.6%) during the quarter. Acer, Lenovo, and Dell rounded out the top 5 with 9%, 7.7%, and 7.3% market share, respectively.
The market share report from NPD indicates that tablets are quickly replacing laptop purchases in the mobile PC industry. If counted on its own, Apple’s 13.6 million iPads sold in the quarter would still have bested second place HP by nearly 5 million units sold. Clearly, while the majority of mobile PC purchases in the quarter were still laptop computers, the traditional laptop makers have to be getting nervous at just how well the iPad is performing.
When it comes to the tablet market alone, Apple’s dominance only grows. With it’s 13.6 million total unit sales, Apple laid claim to a whopping 62.8% of the tablet market in Q1, 8.5 times more than Samsung, which took the number 2 spot with 1.6 million units sold (7.5%). Amazon, RIM, and ASUS rounded out the top 5 with 0.9 (4%), 0.5 (2.3%), and 0.5 (2.3%) million units sold, respectively.
[via All Things D, NPD]
