Canalys: iPad Was 1 Of Ever 6 PCs Sold In Q4 2012

The analysis group Canalys has released a report detailing how they've run the numbers on the PC market for the fourth quarter of 2012, discovering that when the iPad is included in those numbers, they take 1 out of every 6 units sold. This report details PC shipments across the whole world for the fourth quarter of 2012 and makes it clear that while worldwide shipments of PCs did go up 12% year-over-year, it's Apple's iPad that seems to be making the most significant dent. Apple also leads the PC market in general.

With a fourth quarter worldwide sales mark of 134 million units for PCs, it was Apple who came out on top in several ways. Apple keeps the number 1 spot in this market analysis with 27 million units and kicking back a 20% share overall – that's the most it's ever had, mind you. In second place was HP with 15 million PC units shipped and Lenovo with just 200k unit sales difference – both vendors work now with an 11% share of the total worldwide PC sales market.

For the first time in the top five in the history of the time Canalys has been analyzing such things, Samsung has broken into the top 5 for PC sales worldwide, edging out Dell with a 9% share – that's 11.7 million PCs. It's worth noting that Canalys has seen neither the launch of Windows 8 or holiday sales (in Europe and/or the USA) have a real effect on worldwide shipments of PCs.

On the other hand, Canalys notes that the "pad" segment (tablets, that is), grew 75% this Q4 2012 up to 46.2 million units. This jump combined with the rest of the year sales put the pad segment at 114.6 million units over the past four quarters. Apple specifically saw continued growth driven here in the pad category with their new iPad mini. Canalys notes that in addition to appearing to swallow up a bit of their own potential full-sized iPad sales, Apple has been cannibalizing PC sales on the whole with the iPad mini. That's one beastly little "pad".

[via Canalys]