Arik Hesseldahl, AllThingsD:
Last year, for the first time since 2001, the U.S. market for personal computers shrank, according to separate research reports issued yesterday by the research firms Gartner and IDC. The year 2011 was, by IDC’s reckoning, the second-worst year in the PC industry’s history.
Sounds gloomy …
So who grew? Apple. It saw its shipments grow by 18 percent in the quarter, according to IDC, and by 21 percent in the Gartner report. As of the end of the year, IDC said, Apple’s share of the U.S. market amounted to 10.7 percent, which is up from 8.8 percent a year ago.
… unless you’re Apple. If everything goes as expected at the Q1 2012 earnings report, Apple will have outpaced the P.C. market for 23 consecutive quarters.