Analyst: iPad Marks ‘Unprecendented Shift’ in Computer Industry

By

ipad-v-pc

For some time, many have seen the iPad as only a threat to the PC industry. However, Apple’s tablet could actually breathe life into that market, providing new blood for an anemic industry. If the iPad is classified a PC, third-quarter sales growth in the U.S. would climb to 24 percent, up from a measly 4 percent, according to an analyst.

“The iPad is driving a rapid, unprecedented shift in the structure of the computing industry,” Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore told investors Monday. For Apple, if the iPad were classified alongside the iMac, MacBook and Mac Pro, computer sales for the Cupertino, Calif. company would go through the roof – climbing from 24 percent year-over-year growth to 250 percent, Whitmore said. This when PC leader HP saw sales increase just three percent and Dell watched demand fall five percent.


If the iPad were part of Apple’s mix of computers, its share of the U.S. PC market would be about 25 percent, the analyst writes. That would put it either neck-and-neck with market leader HP, or in first place. Apple recently cracked the 10 percent market, edging out Toshiba and just a hair’s breath from No. 3 Acer.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has called the iPad the “People’s Mac,” able to become the second computer for persons already owning a PC or a primary computer for those unable to afford a Mac.

[Fortune]

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