Both companies said Apple was the third largest PC company in the U.S.
Chart by The Mac Observer from Gartner Data
In addition to the differing share and unit sales figures from the two research companies, they also differed with their relative performance numbers for Apple. IDC said that Apple’s Mac unit sales declined from 1.83 million units year-over-year, while Gartner showed Apple increasing its Mac unit sales from 1.83 million year-over-year.
“Among the top 5 vendors in the U.S. PC market, all but Apple experienced a decline in shipments,” Gartner said in its report. IDC didn’t offer Apple-specific commentary.
Both companies painted a gloomy picture for the PC industry as a whole. According to IDC, “The U.S. market fared worse than expected, shrinking by 10.6 percent compared to a forecast of -4.4 percent. Most vendors and their channel partners struggled with shrinking demand as a saturated market and lack of incentives are leading buyers to delay purchases of PCs for the time being.”
Gartner was more direct in pointing to the effect of smartphones and the iPad, with principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa saying, “Consumers are less interested in spending on PCs as there are other technology product and services, such as the latest smartphones and media tablets that they are purchasing.”
On the global front, Apple is still far from being a top five PC maker. Asus shipped 6.1 million PCs, according to Gartner, to be the fifth largest PC maker on the planet. Neither firm offered estimates for Apple’s global Mac sales, but Apple is likely to turn in global Mac unit sales in the neighborhood of four million.
HP remained the largest global PC maker, followed closely by Lenovo. Gartner showed Acer as the new #3 PC maker, while former top dog Dell came in fourth. IDC showed Dell still just ahead of Acer in unit sales.