Apple Tops Worldwide Mobile PC Shipments in Q2 2011 with iPad Included - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Tops Worldwide Mobile PC Shipments in Q2 2011 with iPad Included

Research firm DisplaySearch today released the results of its estimates of mobile PC sales for the second quarter of 2011. The study includes both traditional notebooks and tablets, and Apple was able to ride the strength of the iPad to the top of the list with 21.1% of the market on 13.6 million units shipped. Apple comfortably topped second-place HP, which came in at 15% share with 9.7 million units shipped.

displaysearch mobile rankings 2q11
The report notes that Samsung and Dell led the way in year-over-year shipment growth among notebook PCs, but that performance was overshadowed by Apple's iPad growth, which saw unit shipments more than double year-over-year.

On the tablet front, quarterly shipments of non-Apple tablets have quickly risen to 5.6 million units, although many manufacturers appear to be having difficulty translating those shipments into actual sales to customers. Overall, tablet shipments were up 70% quarter-over-quarter and 400% year-over-year.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.4 Adds Two New Features to CarPlay

Tuesday March 24, 2026 1:55 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 was released today, and it includes a couple of new features for CarPlay: an Ambient Music widget and support for voice-based chatbot apps. To update your iPhone 11 or newer to iOS 26.4, open the Settings app and tap on General → Software Update. CarPlay will automatically offer the new features so long as the iPhone connected to your vehicle is running iOS 26.4 or later....
Apple Business hero

Apple Unveils 'Apple Business' All-in-One Platform

Tuesday March 24, 2026 8:53 am PDT by
Apple today announced Apple Business, a new all-in-one platform that unifies device management, productivity tools, and customer outreach features. The service is designed to be a consolidated replacement for several of Apple's existing business-focused offerings, including Apple Business Essentials, Apple Business Manager, and Apple Business Connect. It provides organizations with a single...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Tuesday March 24, 2026 12:31 pm PDT by
Apple today released new firmware for the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and the AirPods 4. The firmware has a version number of 8B39, up from 8B34 on the AirPods Pro 3, 8B28 on the AirPods Pro 2, and 8B21 on the AirPods 4. There is no word on what's included in the firmware, but Apple has a support document with limited notes. Most updates are limited to bug fixes and performance...

Top Rated Comments

OllyW Avatar
191 months ago
How can it be a PC if it's a Post-PC device? :confused:
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nightfly13 Avatar
191 months ago
Why not include iPods and REALLY pad the numbers..
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
0098386 Avatar
191 months ago
How can it be a PC if it's a Post-PC device? :confused:

It can be included as "a PC" when it benefits Apple's figures.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TimUSCA Avatar
191 months ago
Every report I see like this says "if the iPad is included". If you have to tack that onto every report, maybe that's a sign that it isn't and shouldn't be included.

I realize it's a grey area in the industry, but it runs the same OS and iPhone and iPod Touch. So if you're going to include the iPad, you need to include those too. The defining factor for mobile PC should be a full OS with a navigable file system. Tablets don't (and shouldn't) have these qualities. So while the iPad is a mobile device, I don't think it should be included as a "mobile PC".
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
allpar Avatar
191 months ago
Mac shipments without iPad

The report said 80% of Macs shipped were iPads. If you exclude those, you get around 2.7 million Macs. However, you then have to exclude tablets and maybe other form factors from competitors, too.

Their category is mobile personal computers, not laptops or notebooks. I think that's their rationale.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BaldiMac Avatar
191 months ago
1)iPads REQUIRE a personal computer to even turn on the very first time. Period. End of story. So how can it be considered a personal computer?!

Luckily, this specious argument goes away with iOS 5.

2)iPads are in a new market called the Tablet Market...a bit unfair to include iPads in all sorts of other "market" reports

:D Good one. A product can be compared in many different markets. For example, no one complains when laptops are compared in the PC market and separately in the mobile PC market.

3)iPads are really just large Touches and/or iPhones...whether you believe it or not...everything is identical except size and possibly 1 or 2 hardware changes since it is much larger or the inability to dial. So why not include the Touches and/or Phones in said PC Shipments?

Because the iPod touch and the iPhone don't compete with PCs. A significant number of people have been shown to choose an iPad over a netbook or other laptop. The same cannot be said for the iPod touch.

Again, this report is a market analysis, not a semantics argument.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)