Although we are still a few months away from the launch of the iPad 3, some analysts are already trying to predict the future of Apple and claim that the future tablet could turn Apple into the largest PC manufacturer on the planet. For more than a year there has been a big controversy about tablets because some analysts consider them to be PCs and others not. I for one cannot consider a mobile terminal with an operating system specially made for mobile terminals as a personal computer because it is simply not capable of doing as many things.
Canalys today announced that it expects Apple to overtake HP to become the leading global PC vendor before the second half of 2012. Pads, and particularly the iPad, have radically changed the dynamics of the PC industry over the last year, already propelling Apple into second place in the worldwide PC market in Q3 2011. Canalys estimates full-year 2011 global PC shipments to reach 415 million, up 15% year-on-year, thanks predominantly to increasing pad sales.
Going by this idea, I think that Apple will not become the largest producer of PCs until the middle of 2012, as the one from Canalys. No matter how many tens of millions of tablets Apple will sell, I for one could not name the company as the largest producer of PCs because from my point of view an operating system for mobile terminals is limited not only by software but also by hardware. You can do much more on a PC than on a mobile terminal and a PC gives you the opportunity to modify any aspect without the slightest problem.
In conclusion, Apple - the largest producer of PCs? Or rather, the largest producer of tablets. Steve Jobs presented iOS 5 as an operating system that will take us into the post PC era, but it seems that some analysts do not want to get there for now. Unfortunately, the world is run by analysts like those from Canalys, and no matter how I express my opinion, they will still be right.
