Apple's iPad And Mac Dominated PC Sales In Q2 2013

Apple AAPL rarely comes close to attaining the most sales in the PC market. That's because the Mac, which achieved record sales in 2011 and 2012, rarely sells more than five million units per quarter. In 2013, Mac sales began to decline, creating some concern among market watchers. To make matters worse, iPad sales declined during the June quarter. Even with that decline, independent analysts at Canalys have concluded that Apple still led the PC market during the second quarter of 2013. Unlike other analysts, which focus only on notebook and desktop PC sales, Canalys combined sales of all iPads (iPad 2, iPad 4 and iPad Mini) and all Macs (iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini and Mac Pro) into one category. This amounted to total sales of 18.6 million units, giving Apple 17.1 percent of the market. Apple sold more units during the year-ago period, when it achieved sales of 21 million units and commanded more than 19 percent of the market. But its Q2 2013 sales still proved to be more than Lenovo, which sold 13.1 million units. Hewlett-Packard HPQ came in third with nearly 13 million units sold. Samsung SSNLF rose to fourth place with sales of 10.8 million units (versus just 5.2 million during Q2 2012). Dell DELL remained fairly steady with sales of 9.4 million units, representing a two percent decline from the previous quarter. While the rivalry between Apple and Samsung is expected to continue, the two companies have reportedly agreed to work with each other on the next-generation iPad Mini. Samsung will provide a high-resolution display for the new tablet, which will be marketed under the Retina Display banner. Over the weekend, President Obama surprised the tech community when he overturned a ban of select Apple products that was ordered by the International Trade Commission. The ITC banned the AT&T T version of the iPhone 4 (among other products) after Samsung claimed that it and other iDevices infringed on its patents. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ