Apple's PC market share grows

A recovery in the personal computer market has helped Apple grow its New Zealand market share in the category to more than 10 per cent for just the second time ever.

With Apple's long-awaited iPad due for release this month, figures from research company IDC show that the company's more traditional products still have pulling power.

Out of eight major PC vendors, only Apple, Asus, Toshiba and Acer saw gains in overall market share for the March quarter over the previous quarter.

The overall market grew 1.9 per cent in the quarter, and 19.4 per cent year on year.

However, there is significant migration from desktop to portable PCs such as laptops and notebooks, says IDC analyst Liam Gunson.

"We continue to see portable PCs being the main growth area of the market and a lot of desktop to notebook migration happening, particularly within the consumer and small to medium business markets."

In the March quarter, sales of portable PCs climbed 4.8 per cent over the previous quarter, while sales of desktop PCs fell 2.5 per cent. Year-on-year growth was positive for both, although the portable category's 27.3 per cent rise more than tripled desktop's 8.2 per cent.

Apple first hit 10 per cent market share in the first quarter of last year.

Mr Gunson says Apple has showed strong performance in the consumer and education categories.

"Apple do play within some of the higher price bands within the consumer market and they don't have as wide a range as some of the other vendors, so it does make it impressive when they are able to make gains in their market share," Mr Gunson says.

"It was only a few years ago that they were sitting around the 5 per cent market share."

Richard Webb, chief executive of Renaissance Group, which distributes Apple PCs exclusively in New Zealand, confirms the sales in Magnum Mac stores grew strongly in the first quarter.

"We've restructured our business from one Apple-focused division to a number of customer-focused sales divisions in 2010. This has allowed us to leverage our sales resources right across the group to better expand Apple's reach to our customers.

"The growth in our Apple business is a reflection of our improved execution."

- © Fairfax NZ News