Market research firm IDC released preliminary PC shipment estimates on Thursday which showed an overall contraction of 4.5% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2012. Apple was also in the losers column, with a 0.2% negative growth rate.
According to IDC’s quarterly estimates, Apple shipped roughly 2.03 million Macs over the three-month period ending in December, just 3,000 units shy of last year’s performance. Despite showing negative growth in quarter four, Apple managed to gain market share over other PC vendors like Toshiba, which took huge hits over the same period.
Issues involving the rollout of the new iMac may be to blame for the Apple drop, as the new lineup is still in short supply more than a month after their introduction.
U.S. PC shipments fell to 17.75 million from 18.6 million a year ago, showing a negative growth rate of 4.5%.
“Although the third quarter was focused on the clearing of Windows 7 inventory, preliminary research indicates the clearance did not significantly boost the uptake of Windows 8 systems in Q4,” said Jay Chou, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.
HP held on at the top, swimming against the downward tide to show a 12.4% gain in the quarter. Dell was number two, in spite of suffering from a 16.6% year-to-year loss. Apple held third, ahead of both Lenovo and Toshiba, who filled out the top five.
