14 DAY TRIAL // Looks like HP might not be doing that well on the laptop market if recent rumors in regards to the situation on the worldwide mobile PC front have any credence to speak of.
With how things have been going on the IT market, some changes in regards to company rankings and such are naturally going to happen.
In fact, things of this sort have already occurred, especially with all the instances of CEOs getting sacked, among other things.
Still, even though tablets have been disruptive, their effect was far-reaching and fairly uniform, not localized, meaning that the drop in laptop sales is affecting everyone.
Nonetheless, it might just be that HP is experiencing some heat on the laptop market anyway, mostly because of Apple.
As end-users probably know, the former is, at present, the world's largest supplier of personal computers, be they desktops or laptops.
Back in 2010, it shipped 40 million notebooks, while 2011 is poised to see 45 to 50 million more being delivered to users' homes.
These figures might not look in any way assailable, especially by Apple, whose MacBook sales aren't about to pose any threat.
Things change, however, when one decides to include tablets in the total notebook shipments, in which case Apple could take the lead in 2012.
While Apple will only deliver about 15 million MacBooks next year, combined notebook and tablet shipments will go to 75 million, which would be 25-20% of the global market.
The fact that Apple will account for 60% of all tablet shares in 2011, and HP's performance during 2010 and the ongoing year, contributed to setting up this prediction.
HP has already said that the TouchPad isn't necessarily a rival to the iPad, since it should, hypothetically, coexist with it and Android units. Either way, just what the market ends up like by the end of 2012 remains to be seen.