Apple's defenders count the errors in Microsoft's anti-iPad ads

• Tablet shipments surged 75% last quarter. Apple's iPad still dominant, but less so

  IDC thinks Asus, Samsung and Amazon gained market share, but what do they know?

  FORTUNE -- IDC on Wednesday released preliminary data from its survey of worldwide tablet sales in the big holiday quarter, and the only thing in the data that we can be sure about is that sales of Apple's iPad grew 48.1% year over year -- from 15.1 million to 22.9 million. We and IDC know this because MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 31, 2013 7:06 AM ET
  Posted in: AAPL, Amazon, Apple, Apple Inc., Asus, IDC, iPad, Market Share, Samsung

• Today in Tech: Why Project Glass is Google's future

  Why the next platform war will be between Google play and Apple iTunes; young people say the Internet is shaping who they are. 

  Exclusive: Google's Andy Rubin and Asus' Jonney Shih on how they cooked up the Nexus 7 [ALL THINGS D]

  "Our engineers told me it is like torture," Shih said in an interview on Wednesday, shortly after the Google-Asus joint project was announced. "They [Google] ask a lot."

  It's a sphere! The MORE

  JP Mangalindan, Writer - Jun 28, 2012 11:23 AM ET
  Posted in: Android, Andy Rubin, Asus, Google, Nexus Q

• Mac sales zigged as Windows PC sales sagged in Q4

  Apple is the only bright spot in the industry's worst quarter in a decade

  Fourth quarter personal computer numbers for the U.S. market came in from Gartner and IDC Wednesday and for the second quarter in a row, Apple (AAPL) sales grew like gangbusters while the Microsoft (MSFT) Windows PC market actually shrank.

  Apple sales in the U.S. were up 20.7%, according to Gartner, while HP (HPQ) was down 21.6%, Dell (DELL) MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 12, 2012 6:39 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Asus, Dell, Gartner, Hewlett-Packard, IDC, PCs, Personal computer, Thailand, Toshiba

• Canaccord Genuity: Kindle Fire will take 15.3% of tablet market

  Estimates the iPad's share will drop from 74% to 53.2% by the time Christmas is over

  The chart above is what Canaccord Genuity's T. Michael Walkley thinks the worldwide tablet market will look like this quarter after Amazon gets through disrupting it by selling a few million Kindle Fires at or below cost.

  In a note to clients issued Tuesday, he estimated that ...

  Apple's (AAPL) share of units sold will drop MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 6, 2011 2:57 PM ET
  Posted in: Amazon, Apple, Asus, Canaccord Genuity, HTC, Kindle Fire, RIM, Samsung, T. Michael Walkley, Tablets

• Gartner: Apple and Asus were the big winners in Europe in Q3

  Their PC shipments grew by double digits while the broader market fell more than 11%

  Even without counting the iPad, Apple (AAPL) gained smartly on the major personal computer vendors in Europe last quarter according to a report issued Monday by Gartner, Inc.

  While the broader market for PCs fell 11.4% in the quarter, Apple's Mac shipments grew 19.6%. Only Asus, which specializes in Microsoft (MSFT) Windows-based notebooks, grew faster.

  Otherwise, writes Gartner's MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 14, 2011 12:14 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Asus, Dell, Gartner, Hewlett-Packard, iPad, Mac, Microsoft, PCs, Windows

• Does Intel's ultrabook stand a chance?

  Intel is prodding PC manufacturers to make better ultra-thin and light laptops like Apple's MacBook Air. But the concept faces strong headwinds -- and tough competition.

  FORTUNE -- When Apple launched the MacBook Air, it got flack: not fast enough, not enough ports, too pricey, the optional external optical disc drive had as much portable appeal as a brick. Fast-forward three years, and the current version of the Air has become MORE

  JP Mangalindan, Writer - Sep 12, 2011 12:13 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Asus, DisplaySearch, iMac, Intel, Intel Corporation, iTunes, Lenovo, MacBook Air, Toshiba, ultrabook

• Apple portable computers set to dominate the rest of 2011

  Especially if you throw in iPad sales, as yet another Wall Street analyst has done

  If you look closely at the chart at right, taken from a note to clients issued Monday by Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore, you'll see that it has two entries for the second quarter of 2011.

  Both show notebook computer sales as reported by the six largest vendors. The difference -- which Whitmore has highlighted with an orange MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 8, 2011 7:09 AM ET
  Posted in: Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, Deutsche Bank, Hewlett-Packard, HP, iOS, iPad, Market Share, Microsoft, notebooks, PCs, Samsung, Tablets, Ultrabooks, Windows

• PCs: Apple jumps to No. 3 in the U.S., even without the iPad

  Meanwhile, sales growth slowed worldwide as buyers shifted to smartphones and tablets

  The iPad was the elephant in the room as Gartner and IDC reported that worldwide PC sales in the second quarter of 2011 were even worse than their modest expectations.

  Shipments grew only 2.6% according to IDC and only 2.3% according to Gartner, well below the 6.7% Gartner had predicted and a fraction of the 12% IDC reported in Q1.

  Apple, MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 14, 2011 7:14 AM ET
  Posted in: Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, Gartner, Hewlett-Packard, International Data Corporation, iPad, Personal computer

• Consumer Reports [hearts] Apple's MacBooks

  Apple's notebooks sweep every category in the latest report, despite middling reliability scores

  Consumer Reports doesn't always love Apple's (AAPL) products. It still doesn't recommend the iPhone 4 because of problems its testing lab had with the external antenna. But in its survey of the current crop of notebook computers released Tuesday, the magazine gave the MacBook line its highest ratings in every category in which Apple competes, from the 11-inch MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 25, 2011 7:03 AM ET
  Posted in: Acer, Antennagate, Apple, Asus, Consumer Reports, Dell, iPhone 4, Laptop, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Sony, Toshiba