The times they really are a-changing, with the second report in a week suggesting Apple’s moving to dominate the PC industry, (as I noted right here last week). The latter report points out that if you include iPad sales, Apple is now the number three player in the portable market. That’s right, if you count tablets as notebook PCs, Apple just passed Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and Dell, observes Philip Elmer-DeWitt, citing Deutsche Bank analyst, Chris Whitmore. Whitmore added Apple’s iPad sales to its IDC regulated notebook sales to find the company’s true position in mobile computing, “When including the iPad as part of the NB [notebook] market,” he writes, “Apple leapt over Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and Dell in terms of global unit share.” One more thing: seems the iPad is “directly cannibalizing demand for other vendors’ NB products.” Apple’s MacBook sales must surely be suffering too, right? Wrong — they set new records in the last quarter. Add Apple’s other mobile computer, the iPhone (and perhaps iPod touch) and Apple becomes the dominant PC industry player.
