Apple Nears Samsung in Combined Desktop, Notebook, Tablet, Smartphone Shipments

Apple closed the gap on Samsung in combined fourth quarter shipments of desktops, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones, pulling to within 1%, reports IDC.

Total worldwide shipments of smart connected devices grew 29.1% year over year in 2012, crossing 1 billion units shipped with a value of $576.9 billion. The market expansion was largely driven by 78.4% year-over-year growth in tablet shipments, which surpassed 128 million in 2012.

Looking specifically at the results for the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12), combined shipments of desktop PCs, notebook PCs, tablets, and smartphones was nearly 378 million and revenues were more than $168 billion. In terms of market share, Apple significantly closed the gap with market leader Samsung in the quarter, as the combination of Apple's iPhone 5 and iPad Mini brought Apple up to 20.3% unit shipment share versus 21.2% for Samsung. On a revenue basis for the fourth quarter, Apple continued to dominate with 30.7% share versus 20.4% share for Samsung.


IDC says they expect table shipments to surpass desktop PCs in 2013 and notebooks in 2014. This year desktop shipments are expected to drop 4.3% and notebook shipments are expected to grow at just 0.9%. On the other hand, tablet shipments are expected to each a new high of 190 million units for a year-over-year growth of 48.7%. The smartphone market is also expected to see high rates of growth with shipments estimated at 918.5 million units or an increase of 27.2%.

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