Shipments of desktop and notebook PCs in the United States were buoyed by the Netbook in the first quarter of 2009, but the overall shipments still fell 7.1 percent over the same period last year. Shipments of Macs remained fairly constant in both market share and shipments, according to a new report from market research firm IDC.
IDC says that Apple shipped 1,130,000 Macs in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 1,144,000 in the first quarter of 2008. Even though Apple saw a minimal decline of 14,000 computer shipments in the quarter, research shows that the company’s market share actually increased over that time period.
Apple’s market share rose from 7.4 percent in 2008 to 7.6 percent in the first quarter of 2009, according to the IDC report.
HP, the PC shipment leader saw its market share rise from 23.8 percent in 2008 to 27.6 percent in 2009, with shipments going from almost 3.7 million to just over 4.1 million. Rival Dell saw its shipments fall from almost 4.7 million to 3.9 million as its market share fell four points to 26.3 percent.
Apple finds itself in fourth place for both market share and shipments of computers in 2009, which didn’t change from 2008. HP leads the way, with Dell following close behind. Acer is one spot ahead of Apple with 10.5 percent market share.
Even though the market declined 7.1 percent overall, it did better than researchers predicted. The projected decline for the first quarter was 8.2 percent.
IDC says that falling pricing, including the Netbook, helped to minimize the decline of overall shipments.