Apple Up, Windows Down

Gartner: PC sales down in the US last quarter, Apple Macintosh sales up. Here are the numbers:

In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 17.5million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, a 2.1 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2011 (see Table 2). Due to the tight inventory control and preparation for the Windows 8 launch, most PC vendors were able to ship Windows 8 PCs to the retail space. However, PC sell-through was rather weak which leaves some level of inventory concerns for vendors in the consumer market.

Mac’s US market share is now up to 12.3%. Not bad for an OS that spent years selling in the low single digits. It looks like Windows 8 hasn’t done much to inspire new PC sales.

What’s driving the PC sales decline? In a word, tablets. And Apple still owns half or better of the tablet market. I’m starting to think yesterday’s WSJ report really was overblown.