Canalys research has suggested that with iPad 3, Apple will probably take Hewlett-Packard’s spot as the top manufacturer of PCs before the end of the second quarter in 2012.
Apple currently holds the second spot as a PC vendor worldwide and has experienced a leap in its market share from 9 percent to 15 percent in only a year’s time. This jump is credited greatly to a significant demand for its iPad tablet product, which is considered to be a computer by Canalys.
Equally, though, iPad shipments in the United States could be held back in the fourth quarter of 2011 due to the Kindle Fire from Amazon and the Nook from Barnes & Noble. Those tablet products are being launched at prices that will be much more affordable to consumers. For that reason, Apple will not be able to win the battle for the top position with HP during this quarter, but it will instead be delayed in the first half of next year with the release of the iPad 3.
Competing tablet manufacturers continue in the struggle as rivals of Apple, as many begin to use the strategy of selling their products at lower prices in order to give them an advantage. The launch of Android 4.0, nicknamed the Ice Cream Sandwich, may provide vendors of Android-based products with another opportunity for pushing the smartphone apps that have already been developed, but for use on tablet devices.
According to Canalys, the timing of the Android operating system update could have been better planned, as it will have missed the holiday shopping season.
