Apple’s Halo Effect Boosts Its Global Desktop Market Share

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By Jacob Maslow

Tim Cook - Apple CEO 5When it comes to desktop PC, it’s still a Windows world. It really is. Regardless of how much people ooh and ahh about Apple’s latest tablet and mobile offerings, when it comes to desktop computers, Windows is still king of the roost. Well, thanks to the recent multi-quarter slide of desktops, this might not be the case forever. The PC market has been the victim of a 4 year slide in shipments and sales. The trend isn’t ending anytime soon. Still, there was a bit of good news this year for desktop makers because the erosion has tapered off a bit. Yes, the market for desktops is still shrinking but it hasn’t been shrinking as badly as before. The drop in shipments fell from 10% to 2%. I guess that’s good news… somewhat. What’s notable about this news is Apple Computers’ market share position.

Based on last year’s numbers, Apple actually increased its global desktop share by 16%. Not too shabby considering the fact that PC buyers would have to shell a few extra hundred bucks to run OSX and have that snazzy apple logo on the box they are using. This points to the solid effects of Apple’s consistent desktop marketing campaigns but, more importantly, to the halo effect of its mobile devices.

The more people are turned on by Apple mobile gadget devices and phones, the more that brand identification flows to the rest of Apple’s electronic offerings. Another key fact to get out of the recent sales figures for the 300 million plus PC units shipped last year is how concentrated the market is. It might seem that the market is big enough to accommodate many players but in reality, the market is dominated (65%) by the top 5 PC makers: Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer, and Apple. Apple performed so well  it pushed Asus out of the top 5. Can Apple hang on? Or will its high premiums get the best of its market share performance? Can the PC market’s continued slide reverse direction any time soon?

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