Funny Numbers Peg Apple Being on Pace to Become Largest PC Vendor in 2012

So apple paid off Canalys and HP paid off Gartner???

An iPad is not a computer it is a media consumption and network computing device. To tell you the truth by the end of the first quarter it will be out powered greatly by almost any Android phone and after that Windows phone and iPhone will join that crowd by day June. The thing is the phones will be quad core +1 (for singular processing IE standby low energy modes) with separate GPUS etc. Either way the iPad is not yet a computer so this whole metric measurement is screwed before the title was printed! As far as it goes as well I am not a specific fan solely of either yes I have an Android for now because when I got it it was the most technologically able and I had to have a smart phone. I could have gotten an iPhone but it was 2/3G only with a single core processor and slower memory so I did not.

@rapid1: What a ridiculous statement... "An iPad is not a computer "

What constitutes your definition of a computer then?

An iPad has:

1. A CPU.

2. Video Card.

3. RAM.

4. Hard Drive.

5. Mother/Logic Board.

6. Sound Card.

7. Wi-Fi.

8. Runs applications.

9. Keyboard.

Now explain what a "computer" has that's different than what I just mentioned. You can't.

When it comes to Macs versus PCs, Apple versus Microsoft, and iOS versus Windows, haters gonna hate no matter which side you choose, if in fact you're not completely platform agnostic. There's nothing we can do about that. All we can do is observe and report the facts, and in this case, a market research firm is saying Apple is on track to

It's not going happen, not in a year. Apple makes from all its. money from ios, and i know plenty of people aren't going to spend the money on buying a apple. Maybe in 2016,but not in 2012.

It's easy, use the web usage stats pages and sort them by: windows x, iOS, OSX and you'll get a much more acurate idea of whats going on.

Counting iOS as a PC as in "Personal Computer" is just stupid, Also there isnt really any PC vs Mac argument anymore since both use the same hardware now. The only remaining argument is OSX vs Windows and whether you want to pay 30% more for the same hardware or not.

I completely welcome Mac users, it filters a ton of ignorant users out of our repair store and if their mac's break we simply say "We dont work on mac's". By all means please go buy yourselves macs that never break and never get viruses, they make you coffee and do 50 page reports just by aimlessly smacking the keyboard.

What I don't like is schools/other institutes forcing students to buy macs to do certain courses. The same software is avail for PC but for some unknown reason they refuse to acknowledge it.

Even statistics aren't objective nowadays.

Well it's a known fact that Apple is not the niche brand it once was, I mean it's selling more PC's it ever did; and as a consequence of that the Apple computers are also getting some taste of the malware that infected the Windows side; now even though it may be selling more, it has a long way to go before it ever becomes #1. I mean even though it's selling more PC's. You won't find it in every home due to issues such as price and performance; I suppose what Apple could do is lower their prices and offer more comparable PC's but that's currently a pipe dream since Apple shows no signs of changing it's pricing structure.

The argument about including iOS devices in there is just plain ridiculous... I mean the iPad isn't a computer, neither is the iPhone. Sure, both may be powerful but they're not fully functioned and are as rapid1 said "a media consumption and network device." It may do some of the things of the computer but it has apps, and it's apps aren't fully featured as it's Mac counterparts... So I don't know why people should even consider counting iOS devices, seeing as how they're not fully featured computers as mentioned before.

Interesting article. Thanks for posting.

I definitely don't think tablets should be counted as "personal computers". At least not until they can do EVERYTHING computers can do.

anecdotal evidence saves the day!

But but an APPLE is not a PC it is a MAC lol... it is nice to know that people are realizing that it is just another PC with a different OS. An iPad is most definitely not a PC, no one would consider an Android tablet a PC and an iPad is just a big iTouch. Stupid surveys.

This is where I draw the line, I'm a PC guy until death!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no line it is the same hardware with a motherboard (BIOS) chip that enforces apple hardware approval that is the only difference.

Either way a tablet is not a fully functional computer it is as I said a device that has partial access but developmentally is not a full computer therefore it is a gadget pretty much!

I am not saying here a tablet would not be cool to have I am saying Apple counting tablet devices as PC "SALES" in a positive nature financially is some really funky book keeping in all reality!