Apple Leads Notebook Market (If You Consider the iPad a Notebook)

With the iPad, Apple is dominating the tablet market and — depending of what sort of device you consider it to be — the notebook market as well.

Among the top notebook vendors — Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP and Samsung — Apple ranked last in global market share in the second quarter of 2011, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore.

But that’s without the iPad.

With it, Apple was the single largest notebook vendor during the period, with a 20 percent market share — greater than the 15 percent held by PC giant Hewlett-Packard.

An interesting exercise, regardless of how you view tablet computers. To some, the tablet is an entirely new category of device; to others — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, for example — it’s just another PC. And the difference between the two is the difference between market leader and market laggard — though, as Whitmore observes, Apple could hardly be considered the latter.

“Within the computing market, we see significant opportunity for Apple to take meaningful share in the second half as the Microsoft / PC ecosystem is relatively stagnant, lacking meaningful new offerings,” Whitmore wrote in a note to clients. “On the other hand, Apple will be competing with an upgraded Mac OS, new MacBook Airs (and other forthcoming Macs) and a new iPad iOS. Within the Tablet market, the iPad remains the Gold Standard as competitors struggle for mindshare and traction (note HP’s price cuts on the TouchPad). Meanwhile, competing PC manufacturers have suggested Ultrabooks won’t ramp in material volumes until 2012 due to challenges driving price points meaningfully below Apple’s Air. As such, Apple appears particularly well positioned for more share gains heading into the back-to-school and holiday selling season.”