With iPad, Apple is No. 3 in portables, Let the Howling Begin

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With iPad, Apple is No. 3 in portables, Let the Howling Begin

The best thing about this isn't that Apple jumps to #3, but rather that it's become realistic to include tablets in the mobile PC numbers to begin with. At the iPad launch just a few months ago this was unheard of, but the iPad has proven so capable it's not a wild idea, it's becoming obvious.

Traditional PC vendors—who still have no iPad rival—will howl and protest at this suggestion. We'll be told that only the type of PC we've been using for years fits in this category. Their rhetoric will be tailored not only against products they don't sell, but also to soothe baffled consumers and IT groups who can't imagine that "portable" isn't synonymous with laptop.

We'll see a lot of this, but ultimately it will fail. When the iPhone came out there was lots of talk about how it wasn't really a smartphone, but that BS didn't last, either. The market defines product categories, not the tech shills and marketers who want to bend a definition to include only what they sell.

Tagged Hardware Laptop Market Share PC iPad slate tablet

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over 1 year ago Blad_Rnr responded:

There is no reason NOT to include them. If MSFT CEO Steve Ballmer says it's a PC, then there is no question the iPad is a PC (laptop replacement or slate PC). So those tech pundits (*cough* Paul Thurrott *cough*) who don't want to include the iPad in Apple's total computer sales are just being disingenuous. They are making the iPad a separate category to make the downfall of the PC world not as bad as it really is. That graph above is staggering. And to think the profits on most PCs/laptops/netbooks are less than what Apple is making on an iPad!

Apple is in the driver's seat now. They will probably have more earnings next quarter due to iPhone sales, non-stop iPad sales, back-to-school Apple laptop sales, and increasing Mac sales. Apple is an unstoppable juggernaut.

over 1 year ago Dave b. responded:

Two fundamental issues to decide: can it be included in this category if: it must sync to another pc for backup and printing? Seems that apple could remedy easily but does apple really want to?

over 1 year ago Sam responded:

When I buy a PC and bring it home, I usually don't have to sync it to another PC before it will boot. The iPad is close to a PC but it's not quite there yet, IMHO.

over 1 year ago Tom Reestman responded:

Dave b. and Sam,

The category is "Mobile", not "conventional laptop PC".

Laptops were consider "mobile" for ages before the cloud and other tools came along to make keeping things in sync easy. Until then it was always a matter of transferring data from desktop to laptop (or vice versa) via floppy, zip, CD, external hard drive, whatever. Yet no one claimed a laptop then wasn't mobile because of it.

over 1 year ago Matt responded:

Deutsche Bank is absolutely correct in including the iPad in a mobile computer count. Hell it should be included in the entire PC count. It's a computer. I am tired of seeing the bar constantly moved by detractors.

Websters: personal computer
Function: noun
Date: 1976
: a general-purpose computer equipped with a microprocessor and designed to run especially commercial software (as a word processor or Internet browser) for an individual user.

The iPad meets all the "requirements" to be a computer, but now some say "It can't be a computer because it has to sync with another computer." So, since your email needs to sync with a server of some kind, you must not be using a computer either. Also, your media probably didn't come with your computer. You had to download or sync it from another source. Why does it matter what the source is?

Jobs is right, their world is slipping away.

over 1 year ago Steve responded:

"When I buy a PC and bring it home, I usually don't have to sync it to another PC before it will boot. The iPad is close to a PC but it's not quite there yet, IMHO. "

Just had to comment that when I bring an Android phone home I don't have to attach it to a PC to set it up either :)

Quite simply this report is somewhat skewed. If you are considering mobile devices then yes, this report is accurate but not much of a view of real trends. The iPad is fairly unique in the market at the moment but about to be followed by a swarm of other tablet devices. Those are beginning to hit now and once their numbers hit the sales reports that upward spike will quickly get flattened from a market share perspective. It's just simple math that Apple can't hold market share for very long with only one device of each 'type'. The iPhone market share is beginning to evaporate now as people are getting over the hype and exploring the other options.

It's easy to crow how you're #3 in the mobile market when one of your devices has no current competition. Hold #3 in mobile devices when you're in a sea of competitors and then you have something impressive.

over 1 year ago Steve responded:

@Matt: The iPad doesn't meet the standards of 'general purpose computer' any more or less than the iPhone does. In fact the iPhone is more flexible and general purpose than an iPad. By your logic the iPhone is also a computer and should be in the computer count?

over 1 year ago Matt responded:

Steve,

What standards? Yours? Funny how it meets Steve Balmer's requirements, but not yours. Also what is the "general purpose" of a computer?

I will put this simply. The iPad is a computer. The iPhone (and all smart phones) are computers. Here is the difference: The iPhone is marketed as a phone, therefore it is included as a smart phone when analyst compare sales. The iPad is marketed as a mobile computer and should be included in any comparison sales with netbooks, notebooks and tablets along with the overall computer market. People like yourself like to put limitations that don't really exist.

over 1 year ago Tom Reestman responded:

Matt said it well, but there's one more thing. I've owned an iPhone for three years, and sitting at home there's no temptation or desire to use it instead of a laptop. It's simply not the kind of "mobility" the classifications in the report are talking about.

I've had an iPad for three months. My MacBook use has shrunk to minimal (actually, pretty much not at all). There's not only a temptation to use it instead of the laptop, there's a strong desire; the laptop is now too bulky for most purposes. THAT is the kind of mobility the devices in the article are meant to address.

So, yes, the iPad belongs here. PC makers will fight it. Apple bashers will not understand it. Luddites will fear it. And IT people will be clueless. But it's "laptop-type" mobile, and I believe in another year we won't even be arguing over it.

The Small Wave.

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With iPad, Apple is No. 3 in portables, Let the Howling Begin

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