Canalys has announced that the PC market grew 7% in Q1 2011, as the pad market, led by Apple’s iPad, continued to bolster growth. Once again, Apple set the standard in the pad market, mainly at the expense of notebook and netbook shipments, as pads competed for a share of consumer IT spend.
During the first quarter of this year, pad shipments reached 6.4 million units worldwide. Apple accounted for 74% of these shipments, while other vendors struggled to bring competitive products to market. Canalys expects that next quarter will see a significant change in the market, with products appearing from Acer, Asus, LG and RIM.
Apple continued with its strategy to dominate the pad market, with the iPad or iPad 2 available in 59 markets by the end of Q1. A combination of strong Q4 sales and the announcement of the iPad 2’s launch across major markets at the end of March contributed to Apple’s iPad shipments being down 31% sequentially. The full impact of the iPad 2 launch will not register until subsequent quarters, as Apple gets the product into the hands of consumers. While pad sales continued to lift Apple’s results, PC vendors with a focus on the consumer netbook and notebook market, such as Acer and Asus, did not fare so well.
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