A recent NPD report says Apple saw a drop in commercial sales in 2013, while Google’s Android and Chromebook platforms gained ground.
From January to November 2013, research firm NPD saw a total of 14.4 million desktops, notebooks and tablets sold through U.S. commercial channels, representing a 25.4 percent jump from last year.
Apple’s MacBook and iPad lines took a hit in market share, as competition from Google’s and Microsoft’s lineups picked up momentum.
Devices running Chromebook and Android accounted for 1.76 million units that came through the channel, with laptops running Google’s Chrome OS (Chromebooks) taking 9.6% of the market from January to November, a good-sized 9.4% jump from the same period the year before.
Chromebooks bumped the previous second-place Apple MacBooks to third, to come in behind the leader, Windows based laptops. Apple’s MacBooks share dropped 0.8% to end November with a 1.8% share of the market.
NPD says Chromebooks accounted for 21% of all notebook sales, and 8% of all computer and tablet sales during the period, up from 1/10% in 2012.
Chromebooks start as low as $199, so the devices are attracting attention from businesses looking to cut costs while still supplying their employees with computers.
Commercial sales are still trending toward tablets, with a drop seen in both laptop and desktop sales – excepting Chromebooks – and growth for both Android and Windows-based tablets. Tablet sales grabbed over 22% of all computing device sales in the commercial market through November.
While Apple remained the leader in the segment, with 59% of tablet sales, 15.8% of all personal computing device sales, that number is down 1.3% from last year. Android grabbed 8.7% of all commercial sales, up from 4.2% in the previous year, while Microsoft Windows-based tablet went from 0.8% to 2.2%.
Apple took the #3 spot in NPD’s ranking of personal computing device brands in the U.S. commercial market with a 16.1% unit share, down from 17.9% in 2012. HP grabbed first place with 30.4% of the market, Lenovo place second with a 23.3% share. Samsung took fourth, with 10%, a nice jump from its 1.7% in 2012.
