Apple Is DOMINATING This Whole Industry

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was the only one of top five U.S. personal computer vendors to see year-over-year growth in shipments during the second quarter of the year as market research firm Gartner painted a grim picture of the market. While Apple’s PC shipments growth was only 4.3 percent, the company outperformed the overall industry and its 5.7 percent decline.

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“Weakness in the U.S. public market affected the professional segment despite the high PC procurement season in the second quarter,” Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said. “Both government and education institutions are encountering tight budget situations. Shipments to the public sector are expected to be lower than normal seasonality.”

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) stayed as the biggest supplier of PCs in the country with its 3.98 million unit shipments in the quarter, but it dropped 12.7 percent from its number last year. Dell (NASDAQ:DELL), in second place by number of shipments, was down 9.5 percent at 3.46 million. Apple placed third overall with its 1.91 million unit shipments, while Acer and Toshiba followed, respectively. The data took into account desk-based PCs and mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks, but not tablets such as the iPad.

While the market share of HP fell from 27 percent in the second quarter of 2011 to 25 percent now and that of Dell from 22.6 percent to 21.7 percent, Apple moved up from a 10.8 percent of the share to 12 percent. Shares of Acer and Toshiba fell from 9.3 percent to 8.5 percent and 9.6 percent to 8.2 percent, respectively.

Apple’s performance was something of a surprise as it comes after two straight quarters of decline. But the company will be happy to take the momentum into the third quarter, which includes back-to-school purchases and is typically the company’s best-performing three months.

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