According to research company Canalys, Lenovo shipped 16.0 million computing devices - 240,000 more than Apple - giving it a 16% market share. The worldwide market fell 12% annually to 109.2 million units, with double-digit percentage declines affecting desktop, notebook and tablet shipments.

HP (14.1%), Dell (9.7%) and Samsung (8.6%) completed the top five. Samsung experienced a dip as a result of slowing Android tablet sales and the scaling back of its participation in the Windows notebook market.

“Apple and Lenovo lead the market in their home countries of the US and China respectively. Apple is heavily reliant on worldwide iPad shipments, which totalled 10.9 million units this quarter. iPads represented 70% of Apple’s total PC shipments in Q2, and these shipments have been falling year on year since peaking in Q4 2013. Apple remains exposed to the fortunes of the worldwide tablet market, which has experienced annual declines for three consecutive quarters,” said Tim Coulling, Canalys Senior Analyst.

Lenovo has almost 30% of the Chinese PC market and is steadily building its share globally. It achieves market dominance (as HP did) by having a far wider product portfolio that Apple. However it has also had to write of a lot older unsellable PC inventory especially in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Opinion

Apple has an excellent premium business model and a very tight, quality, product range. Yet its flagship iPad has had eight quarters of declining sales – some lost to the 5.7” iPhone 6 Plus to be sure. Mac sales are also down – be they the excellent MacBook or the desktop units. Perhaps the very thing that makes it special is also its Achilles heel when the Windows world is once again seen to be cool.

My reading of the market is that the juggernaut called Windows 10 has started, and will continue to suck the oxygen from Apple’s iPad and Mac as numerous OEM manufacturers release a huge range of W10 based tablets, 2-in-1, clamshell notebooks, 4/5-in ones, All-in-Ones and desktops, for a long time to come.