Asus gained significantly, particularly in the US,
following the launch of the TF300 at a sub-$400 price point.
Joining forces with Google to produce the sub-$200
Google Nexus 7 will further strengthen the role of Asus in this market. Amazon
must now launch a more powerful replacement for the Kindle Fire, and expand
internationally,” said Pin Chen Tang, research analyst at Canalys.
The study also reveals that total pad shipments increased
75 percent to 24 million units, representing 22 percent of all PCs.
In contrast, Windows PC shipments continued to plunge in
the quarter, as Ultrabooks didn’t hit the price points that could excite large
numbers of buyers.
The share of the overall market taken by Windows fell to
a new low of 73 percent.
Intel’s share also hit an all-time low, falling below 70
percent. HP was the second largest PC vendor in Q2 with 12 percent share.
Though, Lenovo continued to gain share, due to increased
demand in home market. Acer improved too, compared to a terrible Q2 a year ago.
Reports that poor economic conditions and the wait for
Windows 8 hurt the PC industry this quarter do not tell the whole story,” said
Tom Evans, research analyst at Canalys.
Canalys has advised PC vendors (Microsoft’s OEMs) to
postpone launches of Windows RT pads until Microsoft rethinks the high license
fee.
However, Canalys does not expect the launch of Windows 8
to arrest Microsoft’s market share decline until Q3 2013 at the earliest.
