Market research companies IDC and Gartner have released their quarterly report on PC sales. Amusingly, on the day that we're supposed to be entering the post-PC era with the launch of Apple's iOS 5, they show interesting – if uneven – growth in shipments across the world.
Sales of PCs compared to this time last year were flat in the US, and down in Europe, but across the whole world IDC reckons they're up 3.6%, and Gartner broadly concurs with a 3.2% estimate. The numbers are short of estimates, which were rather hopeful at around the 5% mark, but still – all things considered – not bad. In total, both firms reckon 91.8m PCs were sold in the last quarter, give or take a little.
That doesn't include tablets, of course.
The biggest winner is apparently Chinese manufacturer Lenovo, whose market share increased 25.2% according to Gartner. Both analysts say that they have leapt into second place behind HP – whose PC portfolio they've also been widely tipped to buy. If that happened, more than one in three PCs sold would be manufactured by Lenovo.
Apple also sold a lot more OSX machines, especially in the US where they're now the third largest vendor. It's suspected that this is largely as a result of the performance boost and price drop in the MacBook Air line up earlier in the year. I know my father in law, who's never really liked Apple, went out and bought one off the back of that, and no doubt many others did too.
So there you are: Apple – technology your Dad likes. And he also listens to Status Quo. Never let that image leave your mind - is it any surprise all the young 'uns use BlackBerry's these days?
It's also a good news day for ASUS, who also increased their marketshare considerably and put on more than a million sales depending on whose figures you read.
