Apple iPad boosts first quarter shipments by 188% to become the 4th largest PC vendor

Beijing April 29, according to foreign media reports, market research firm Canalys said on Thursday local time, if the iPad is classified as a PC, Apple has become the world's fourth-largest PC maker in the first quarter of this year.

Canalys said that global PC shipments in the first quarter increased from 82.8 million units in the same period last year to 88.6 million units. Tablet PC shipments were 6.4 million units, and Apple iPad's share was 74%.

Market research companies Gartner and IDC did not classify tablets as PCs. Gartner and IDC earlier this month stated that PC shipments fell in the first quarter due to increasing interest in tablet PCs and economic uncertainties.

Canalys found that tablet computers are mainly used for general-purpose computing activities such as surfing the Internet, email, and social media.

In the first quarter, Apple PC shipments increased by 187.9% to 8.45 million units with a market share of 9.5%; HP PC shipments fell by 5.8% to 14.7 million units with a market share of 16.6%; Acer shipments decreased by 6.5% to 1130 Million, the market share of 12.8%; Dell shipments increased by 2.8% to 10 million units, ranked third.