Apple retakes World's Biggest Computer Maker Crown after 3 decades - with power of iPhone, iPad and Touch

So its time to do the annual count of the biggest computer makers, when we include smartphones..

I was the first to do this count back in 2008 and done it since. Back then it was almost heresy to suggest that a smartphone was a 'real' computer - but since then all of the 5 biggest classic PC makers - Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, Toshiba and Lenovo - all - have agreed that a smartphone is a full computer, and should be counted as one. So here we go. We did the count again last year and Nokia was on top. This year we see the return of the first rebel computer maker to shake up the classic order - Apple - return to the top. What most readers of this blog are too young to remember, that in the days of the Apple 2, that is an Apple PC way before the Macintosh PC - at one point Apple became the world's biggest computer maker by number of computers sold in the year. Then it soon lost its lead when the IBM PC and its clones came using the Microsoft DOS (and later Windows) operating system. So this moment must be particularly sweet for old-timer Apple employees and fans of the brand. Apple is back on top!

Here is the list for the full year 2010, this time I am able to give the full top 10 (last year was only able to do Top 8). So the biggest computer makers in the world, when we include classic mainframes, desktop and laptop PCs and servers, and newer smaller comptuers, the netbooks, tablet PCs like the iPad, and the smartphones (and the other pocket PCs like the iPod Touch). The number in parenthesis is last year's ranking.

1.  Apple (3). . . . . . . . . . 108.9 Million . . . . .17%
2.  Nokia (1) . . . . . . . . . .100.3 Million . . . . .16%
3.  HP (2) . . . . . . . . . . .   67.5 Million  . . . . 10%
4.  RIM (6) . . . . . . . . . . .  47.0 Million . . . . .  7%
5.  Acer (4) . . . . . . . . . . . 43.8 Million . . . . .  7%
6.  Dell (5) . . . . . . . . . . .  42.7 Million . . . . .  7%
7.  Lenovo (8) . . . . . . . . .  36.2 Million . . . . . 6%
8 . Samsung (-) . . . . . . . .  26.0 Million . . . . . 4%
9.  HTC (-) . . . . . . . . . . .   25.0 Million . . . . . 4%
10. Toshiba (7) . . . . . . . .. 22.1 Million . . . . . 3%
Rest of Computer Makers 126 Million
Total Computers Made . . . 646 Million

Thats the story. Congratulations Apple! Returning back to the top.

A few clarifications for those curious. Obviously no other source (as far as I know, so far) reports on this chart. I've done it for a couple of years now. The numbers I used were public data on the PC sales for the year, the smartphones sales for the year, and the iPad sales for Apple. For the iPod Touch, because Apple doesn't report that number separate from other iPods, I used the formula of 2/3 the size of iPhone sales, which is generally accepted and seems to conform well with other reported data. So I had 31 Million iPod Touch devices for Apple in 2010. Note that I did my best to add PC and tablet sales for Samsung (which is why its ahead of HTC) and added the smartphone sales for HP, Lenovo etc as my best estimate.

There is one 'fudge factor'. This year the race between Acer and Dell is very tight, some like IDC reported Dell ahead of Acer, while others like Gartner reported Acer ahead of Dell. So I did my best and used the average of the numbers I found. But for the others, the differences are very clear, so the rankings for all others is solid. For example the difference between number 2 Nokia and number 1 Apple was so great, that even if iPod Touch devices sold only half the levels of the iPhone, Apple would still have been on top.

And for those who argue that a smartphone is 'not a proper computer' - please don't bother to argue that point here anymore. It is no longer worth arguing, if HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba - the 5 biggest PC makers - all agree that smartphones are computers. I am happy to have comments here, but those postings that try to argue that smarthpones are not computers, they will be mercilessly removed. That train has left the station and I won't bother to reply to those. If the big computer makers think so - go argue with them haha, not me here. I only report the numbers for you.

And talking of numbers, if you needed the numbers for the whole mobile industry, then 189 pages and 94 tables and charts for only 9.99 Euros is a tremendous value. All the data on the subscribers, revenues, services, traffic, handsets, features, apps, operating systems, minutes, messages, advertising etc are in the brand new TomiAhonen Almanac 2011. See here for the full table of contents and ordering info.

Comments

[xxjoarka]

oh come on Tomi, iPod touches are not computers

[Evan]

Nokia is going to slide fast, this year.

[saurabh]

Tomi, You make number crunching so cool :)))

Wish I get the opportunity to learn from you in the near future.

[Don McLean]

Congratulations to Apple, even though I hate their prison garden approach, it seems most of users don't mind being in prison if it's beautiful enough for them inside xD

[Afewgoodmen]

Tomi, this is the best analysis I've read of you. Lovely and entertaining.

[Dissertation]

The Laptops are becoming really famous,generally the laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device,a touchpad, also known as a trackpad,or a pointing stick,so you also said right by telling about some of the latest and great technologies.

[Evan]

Piot,
Tomi is not US based :)

[Alex Birkhead]

Great work Tomi, but with the added irony that we may be re-entering an age of the 'terminal', with the 'computing' element of the client outshone by client-server, web application, or 'cloud' services.

With a bit more work, this brings dumber devices right back into the frame! No coincidence that the web and server are Google's playing fields (and Facebook's), so who gets the last laugh if Apple returns to the top just as the 'personal computing' segment and market definition become redundant in the mass market.

Even Microsoft now looks fairly focused on reinventing its consumer and enterprise businesses in this mould (and showing surprising willingness to burn its 'on-premises' boats), with just those critical Windows/Office/WP pieces still to be translated. I've for a couple of years or so been anticipating a version of Windows (8 or 9?) being a joined-up operating environment that bridges nearly all terminal formats in the same way that UNIX- derivatives like iOS and Android already can.

Following this line of thought, I also wonder if Nokia is being coy about the full extent and purpose of its tie-up with Microsoft (most supporters certainly seem to be praying there is more...). If you merge their internet services (M-Ovi, to coin a cool brand!) and envisage more flexible versions of Windows in the future, then the combination looks set to take Google head on and NOK's strategy of burning its own boats starts to make a lot more sense. Still a huge amount of work to do, but it does give them foundations.

Now, where exactly would this market shift leave Apple with its (recently superbly executed) old school proprietary OS, hardware-oriented, walled-gardened, app-centric approach...

[Alex Birkhead]

Great work Tomi, but with the added irony that we may be re-entering an age of the 'terminal', with the 'computing' element of the client outshone by client-server, web application, or 'cloud' services.

With a bit more work, this brings dumber devices right back into the frame! No coincidence that the web and server are Google's playing fields (and Facebook's), so who gets the last laugh if Apple returns to the top just as the 'personal computing' segment and market definition become redundant in the mass market.

Even Microsoft now looks fairly focused on reinventing its consumer and enterprise businesses in this mould (and showing surprising willingness to burn its 'on-premises' boats), with just those critical Windows/Office/WP pieces still to be translated. I've for a couple of years or so been anticipating a version of Windows (8 or 9?) being a joined-up operating environment that bridges nearly all terminal formats in the same way that UNIX- derivatives like iOS and Android already can.

Following this line of thought, I also wonder if Nokia is being coy about the full extent and purpose of its tie-up with Microsoft (most supporters certainly seem to be praying there is more than meets the eye from this 'transaction'...). If you merge their internet services (M-Ovi, to coin a cool brand) and envisage more flexible versions of Windows in the future, then the combination looks set to take Google head on and NOK's strategy of burning its own boats starts to make a lot more sense. Still a huge amount of work to do, but it does give them foundations. Bear in mind, that in the vaguest of terms, Stephen Elop repeatedly refers to Nokia getting prepared for the 'next disruption'.

Now, where exactly would such a market shift leave Apple with its (recently superbly executed) old school proprietary OS, hardware-oriented, walled-gardened, app-centric, inflated margin approach...

[kevin]

@Alex: One can easily point to the iPhone as being the first mobile device to move consumers to the Web. (There were many earlier devices, but iPhone was the first to make a difference with mainstream consumers throughout the world.)

And Apple is about to move almost 200m iOS users to the cloud. The largest server farm in the world is about to come on line.

So where would that leave Apple? At the leading edge of the mainstream movement. Clearly ahead of Microsoft, Facebook, and Nokia.

[Alex Birkhead]

@Kevin: no argument that Apple is in a sweet spot right now, and aware that its mega-datacenter is coming online shortly and that will likely see interesting new things emerge, but so far iTunes, MobileMe, AppStore, etc. have not been joyous web experiences (even MS does better...). They're clearly very effective distribution, retail and toll-both franchises within Apple's hardware-led, controlled worlds, but they don't seem to translate well to the wider mass market, and that could prove an Achilles heel.

I don’t know how the future will unfold, in terms of the relative prevalence of apps and pervasiveness of cloud services, but Google seems to be playing smart and pragmatic by backing both while emphasising the latter. By contrast, Apple still looks locked in to a more traditional model.

So, if emphasis further shifts from device-centricity to web apps and services (cloud), then Apple's relevance looks likely to lessen. Today, people very rarely use Apple software or services if they don't own Apple hardware, and even the owners not much when they are using other terminals, but nearly everyone uses Facebook and Google whenever they can. People often *love* their Apple hardware, but does anyone love iTunes or the AppStore, other than toll-collectors? Granted, people also *love* their Apps, but these are from external developers who can be fickle. Plus many of the best Apps are already integrated with cloud elements.

Apple has other looming challenges, too, and possibly the biggest right now is obsolescence of its highly effective mobile operator divide-and-conquer strategy. Last year, if you placed five major cellco groups around a table, two or three might be beholden to iPhone exclusivity deals. This year, it could be none. That's dangerous for Apple (as Nokia and RIM both learnt the hard way, when they got too big for their boots a few years back), particularly if you're now tuning in to that seemingly choreographed chorus of 'open' emerging from the big operators.

Google seems to have done an impressive job of patching up relations after its Nexus overreach, so is there anyone else they could possibly have in mind when using 'open' as their Hakka...

[kevin]

Alex: Yes, Apple is device-centric, in that monetization (and profit) comes through the device sale. But Apple's devices (iOS and Mac OS X-based) are synergistic for an Apple customer so many who own one, will own more than one, because offend additional value that gets unlocked. And any one device is an entry point to the whole family of Apple devices.

Even though Apple is device-centric, those devices are supported by an ecosystem full of services (native or cloud), many of which Apple offers its device owners at a break-even cost. So even though cloud-based services are growing, Apple can offer them itself, or engage third-parties to offer them to its device owners, who demographically are a very attractive set of customers.

So where is the weakness? If an outside service, which gains its value from being the network effect, becomes so popular that it threatens to ignore the Apple customers, while being offered to all of Apple's competing device makers. Those services would include Facebook or Google Search or Xbox Live or Twitter, but not NetFlix or Kindle (at least not as they are offered today). For those network-effect services, can they bypass Apple's 200m iOS customers and still maintain their value? That's the tension.

[kevin]

The word "offend" in the first paragraph should be "of the." That was the automated spell correction from the iPhone that I didn't notice.

So to finish up, it's not that Apple or Google are more locked into the apps or the cloud. It's not this either-or, but another one. Apple is looking for both for its iOS/Mac ecosystem, whereas Google is just looking for both, whether on the Android ecosystem or outside of it, in order to place ads on it.

Google gets revenue from advertising anywhere; inside Android, as well as outside on iOS or webOS or whatever. Android was created to protect its mobile advertising revenue in those services by ensuring Google would have a mobile platform if Microsoft, Apple, or Nokia decided to squeeze them out of theirs.

Apple gets revenue from Apple devices so it really has no desire for people to use Apple services outside of Apple devices, except if those services that rely on a network-effect. Which leaves Apple efforts like Ping in a very difficult spot.

And altho Apple is looking for both, it will not trade harming its overall ecosystem in order to allow in a particular third-party native app or cloud-service-client-app. Because that means that app or service is the valued entity and can move to take over the iOS ecosystem and begin to make Apple's devices into low-value commodities. (And there's that tension again.)

Apple had no mobile operator divide-and-conquer strategy - it was not intended to pit operators against each other. There are no exclusivity deals anymore - AT&T was the last. Apple used exclusives to pry the value out of the operator entity in the ecosystem, and break the operators stranglehold on end users. The very first, AT&T, gave Apple most of what it wanted - branding, service/warranty, marketing, distribution, direct content sales (including OTA), bypass carrier content, etc. Then the iPhone's sales (and ability to get switchers) got other operators to give in as well. There's no going back. For the iPhone, the operators are just dumb pipes. Today, they can still restrict some iPhone features due to bandwidth, but over time, as bandwidth increases, the operators will become "dumber".

The Wholesale Application Community has been around for over a year with very little to show for it. The operators can talk open all they want, but since they fundamentally compete against each other, it will be difficult for them to ever work together, and by open, they're not talking about Android. As it is, the operators are desperately looking for alternative OS/ecosystems like WP7, since they don't want to be completely dependent on iOS or Android.

[Mobile Technology]

Mobile technology is the latest field where more and more companies are finding new ways to provide their customers better services at very reasonable price.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi all

Am writing from airport lounge, am rushing. I'll return later and will respond to all of you (thank you for many kind comments!)

Please keep discussion going

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Dissertation Writing]

Computers of the Apple are becoming really famous and specially designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers,and also a suite of professional audio and film industry software products,so great peace of things you share and the list is also useful to see.

[SomeRandomNerd]

I'd love to hear why games consoles like the PlayStation aren't "proper computers" - and what (for example) PS3/PSP sales would do to your ranking.

[JMontes]

So smartphone are now considered as computer.
Guess with Microsft - Nokia deal, we may see different result this year.

[NOKIA You ARE Comitting SUICIDE]

Great analyisis Tomi !This Judas Elop have
just KILLED a great company as NOKIA !!
I for Ex. will NEVER EVER buy a NOKIA

again
if this goes thru !! (

For NOKIAs sake I hope
they still do MUTINY because this is

SUICIDE
on their part ! ) Judas Elop Thinks he

saves
MS with this !

BOY IS HE WRONG !!!!

THIS JUST BROUGHT EVEN MORE HATERED

AGAINST MS !

MS think that they can force NOKIAs

Costumers
to use their OS....

SORRY !! WANT HAPPEN !!

The Chinese will cook up MeeGo to

something GREAT....And take over the WORLD

!! That will be my next REAL SMARTphone

...WP7.5 or whatever #¤%& "They" will Call

it will NEVER Sell !

And Tomi as a fellow Finn an advice....

Stop from now on to give MS FREE OR ANY
ADVICE....

DO NEVER SELL YOUR SEOUL TO THE DEVIL !!!!

[used hp computers]

It's always amazing reading or commenting on a blog from which we get a full knowledge. Same as here I have found some really interesting information which is simply a great boost to my knowledge.