Apple Now Sixth Among Worldwide PC Manufacturers

[Axemantitan]

Riding the wave of good news about Apple's explosive growth over the past years, market research firm Gartner now says that Apple is the sixth largest PC manufacturer in the world.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/09/13/report-apple-now-sixth-among-worldwide-pc-manufacturers

 

[Abstract]

Firstly, they didn't even release figures for Apple. They only mentioned Toshiba being 5th place, and having just under 20% marketshare. Apple, in 6th place, must have between 0 to 19% of the market.

Secondly, the numbers don't make sense. If Toshiba is 5th place and has 20% of the world market (they were nowhere near 20% last year), then the companies in 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place must have greater than or equal to 20% share in 2007. Between the top 5 companies, that would add up to >100% of the market.

Add Apple to the list, and you're well over 100%.



If Gartner is going to make stuff up, they may as well hire me. I'm good at making stuff up.

 

[WildCowboy]

Yeah, can't tell whether it's Gartner or Ars pulling mathematically impossible statistics out of their arse, but this is clearly way off base.

 

[ravenvii]

Ars' arse?

That rhymes.

 

[CWallace]

I think the 20% figure is actually the year-over-year growth. If you click the "fourth largest vendor in the US for Q1 2008" link, it takes you to an April 2008 article with two charts.

According to that chart, Toshiba's worldwide marketshare rose to 4.3% in Q1 2008, which was a 19.3% increase from the 4.1% share they held in Q1 2007.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yeah, can't tell whether it's Gartner or Ars pulling mathematically impossible statistics out of their arse, but this is clearly way off base.

Indeed. Wasn't it the estimable Benjamin Disraeli who referred to "Lies, damned lies, and statistics".
Cheers