Apple grabs double-digit US laptop marketshare

Number four vendor

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

18th September 2008 09:44 GMT

Apple's share of the US laptop market jumped into double figures during Q2, once again hitting the kind of marketshare it experienced in its hey-dey.

According to local market watcher, NPD DisplaySearch, Apple took 10.6 per cent of the US retail laptop market between April and June 2008, up from 6.6 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

That puts it in fourth place in NPD's chart, behind Acer (14.4 per cent), HP (21.4 per cent) and Dell (21.9 per cent).

Toshiba, the previous number four vendor based on Q2 2007 numbers, this time round fell into fifth place with a marketshare of nine per cent.

European buyers are less keen on Apples. Over here, the company failed to make the top five, indicating an EMEA marketshare of less than 5.5 per cent, which is what fifth-place Asus ranked.

HP led on 20.5 per cent, follwed by Acer (17.9 per cent), Dell (12.5 per cent) and Toshiba (11.7 per cent). There were no surprises here: some companies were up a little, others down by similar, couple-of-percentage-point margins.

Of the laptops purchased in Q2, the vast majority were 13.3in and 15.4in models, together taking 88.5 per cent of the market. Machines with 17in or larger screens took 7.5 per cent, down from just under ten per cent in Q2 2007. Laptops with a 12.1in screen or smaller - but excluding netbooks - took just four per cent.

No great surprise there, either. Ultra-portable laptops tend to be very expensive - ditto the big-screen desktop replacements. All the bargains are to be had in the 15.4in segment.

Alas, DisplaySearch didn't say to what extent the SCC market had grown in the period, though market pioneer Asus' share of just 5.5 per cent, down year on year from 5.6 per cent, suggests not much.

Netbooks and Mini-laptops Buyer's Guide