Apple breaks into the Top 5 PC manufacturers for the first time

Although overall computer system sales are down in 2011 compared to in 2010 there was promising signs for Apple as they reached the top 5 in terms of computer systems sold for the first time. They were also the only one of the top 5 manufacturers to increase the number of sales in 2011 compared to 2010 coming in with impressive growth figures of 10%. The table below shows the results for computer sales within western Europe for quarter 1 of 2011 compared to quarter 1 of 2010.

Europe

Overall although things were very positive for Apple the whole PC market of western Europe saw a huge decline of 17.8%. Various reasons are being cited for the decline including the poor state of Europe’s medium sized economies (Portugal, Ireland and Greece for example). Some also blame the decline on consumers being too cautious, many are simply holding out in the hope that prices will fall further in the future. Many have cited Apple’s large growth as a side effect of increased mobile computer production (note the figures excluded tablet PCs) rather than of desktop computers. The MacBook Air was a notable success of quarter 1.

Apple also managed to break into the top 5 of the UK sales charts for the first time too with similar growth figures:

UK