IDC ranks Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) as the 5th largest PC merchandiser

The estimates for the third quarter PC shipments were released by Gartner and IDC quite recently. Gartner estimated that 79.4 million units were expected to be shipped with the projected decline of 0.5% over the years. According to estimates released by IDC, 78.5 million units are expected to be transported, with projected decline coming up to 1.7%. Both Gartner and IDC have Lenovo as the top merchandisers with 15.7 million units. Second in line is HP expected to claim 14.2 million units according to Gartner or 14.7 million units as per IDC. The third vendor in line is Dell with estimated units of 10.2 million according to Garner or 10.4 million according to IDC respectively. Fourth position is claimed by Acer with 6.8 million units as per Gartner or 6.6 million as per IDC.

For the past 18 months, Gartner and IDC had Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) as the 3^rd major merchandiser of PCs in U.S. This has happened for the first time in many years that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) hasn’t been able to retain its position and had to step down the ladder. IDC ranked Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) as the 5^th largest worldwide vendor instead of 3^rd.

According to IDC estimates, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shipped 4.98 million Macs in the quarter. It is interesting to note that Mac unit sales in the June to September quarter have increased to 24%, 22% and 22% in the last 3 years respectively. In the June quarter this year, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) was able to sell 4.41 million Macs and would have succeeded in taking this figure up to an impressive 5.35 million units, if the quarter to quarter growth rate had been 21%.

Although IDC has Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) ranked 5^th, Gartner still has ASUS at 5^th rank in the global market. ASUS claims the position by shipping 5.8 million units. Considering these estimated figures, Garner’s projections are more accurate.

An analyst at Gartner, Mikako Kitagawa has noted that buyers are shifting their focus back to buying PCs. He went on to say that the transition from PC’s to tablets has weakened and the diffusion has reached the 40-50% range. The tablet sales witnessed a boost as they had mainstream consumers as their target market respectively. However, the current market has been slow and PCs are being purchased by people who can afford them. Meanwhile consumers who are unable to afford PCs will buy tablets that are cheaper. This is the main reason why PC shipments have been slow in the developing market.

A senior research analyst at IDC, Jay Chou said that the decrease in shipments was merely a result of weaker back to school sales and is expected to be a temporary issue. He further explained that although the growing market had disappointing effects on sales, other places like Asia and pacific regions did boost up the shipments a little. PC shipments quickly gained momentum in U.S which is why Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is likely to claim the 5^th position because of its huge market in the States.