You may have heard that research firm IDC in May decided to class iPad and other portable devices as PCs, forecasting PC microprocessor units by processor architecture, including those based on x86 (Intel and Advanced Micro Devices) and those based on ARM. As a result of the change, Apple is set to overtake Hewlett-Packard and become the leading notebook vendor in 2012, reports DigiTimes. Here are the numbers:
This is Apple… Meanwhile, HP shipped 40 million notebooks last year and should move an estimated 45-50 million units this year. Based on its performance in 2010 and 2011, HP will have trouble zooming past the 75 million combined tablet and notebooks PCs from Apple. But what about HP’s TouchPad?
Of course, HP’s tablet PC sales are literally non-existent, but that will change now that the company rolled out the TouchPad tablet. Nevertheless, the fact that HP is targeting business customers (because Apple has pretty much locked the consumer segment) combined with the not so favorable reviews will hardly lead to 2012 TouchPad sales in the range of 10-20 million. At the iPad introduction in January 2011, Steve Jobs proclaimed Apple the number one mobile devices company in the world, based on the combined revenue from Mac notebooks, iPhones and iPods. “Apple is a mobile devices company. This is what we do,” he said.
HP is acknowledging Apple’s lead in the tablet space and insisting its tablet is not after the iPad. Speaking to The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple yesterday, HP’s vice president of worldwide developer relations Richard Kerris said this about Apple and the TouchPad:
