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Apple Now the Top PC Vendor, For Some Values of PC

Posted by timothy on from the is-it-personal-does-it-compute dept.

tsamsoniw writes "While research companies including IDC and Gartner deemed HP the PC leader for Q4 2012, Canalys has a different perspective. The analyst firm has declared Apple the top PC vendor for the past quarter, thanks in part to the booming success of the iPad and the iPad mini. By Canalys's reckoning, Amazon, too, now beats out the likes of Acer and Asus as leading PC vendors, having shipped 4.6 million Kindles in Q4."

14 of 577 comments (clear)

  1. So tablets at PCs now? by erotic_pie · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do tablets really count as a "PC"? If that's the case we might as well start considering smart phones PCs, since a modern tablet is basically just a scaled up smart phone.

    1. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Informative

      Do tablets really count as a "PC"?

      Well, let's see .. it has a CPU, memory, can do input, processing, and output (the Von Neumann definition). It's capable of doing Turing complete things, and writing code written for it.

      It's personal, and it meets all of the definitions of computer.

      we might as well start considering smart phones PCs, since a modern tablet is basically just a scaled up smart phone.

      By any meaningful definition, a modern smart phone is more of a computer than what we had 20 years ago -- by a huge factor.

      So, tell us, what aspects of a phone or tablet make it not a computer in your mind? They'll both run rings around an old 486.

      We're no longer talking about things which are hardware specific to a task, and you could easily port any programming language to that platform. The absence of a physical keyboard or mouse don't make you not a computer (because they used to have neither).

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Then we should treat game consoles, both home and portable, as PCs too. So that makes, for example, Nintendo rather significant PC vendor.~

    3. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, but you can't claim that a smart phone or tablet isn't a computer on that basis ... ENIAC wasn't personal, but by the GPs definition it didn't have a keyboard, so it wasn't a computer either. Which is blatantly false.

      By the definition I learned when I got my degree in CS, if it is capable of solving Turing complete problems, it is a computer -- and why we should be having this argument on Slashdot of all places is mind boggling.

      If I used a bluetooth keyboard with an iPad, do you think that keyboard magically turns it from "not a computer" to "is a computer"?? But a virtual keyboard keeps it from being one??

      The architecture itself would be capable of running any programming language ported to it -- that is what makes it a computer. It has a general purpose CPU with an instruction set, and the ability to write new logic on it that isn't defined statically in hardware, ergo, computer.

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      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Informative

      The personal in PC means the device was designed primarily to be used by one user at a time.

      No, it means the device was intended to be owned by people, which was a change from when computers were big giant things in dedicated rooms nobody ever went near and no individual could ever hope to own.

      My 486 Linux box could run more than one user back in 1993 -- was it not a "Personal Computer"? It was mine, it was a computer. Or did it magically become a server instead of a PC?

      The number of intended users is not now, and never has been, part of the definition of "personal" in PC.

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      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by cellocgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      damn straight smartphones are PCs. They just happen to be small-format computers with a cellular link chipset added in.

      Now, just to make both you and me look like the idiots we are, can anyone come up with an accepted, standardized definition of what constitutes a "personal computer" ? I know I can't.

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      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    6. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by whisper_jeff · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My desktop doesn't have a built in keyboard. It requires an external keyboard to be plugged in or synced to have keyboard functionality.

      My iPad has a built in (virtual) keyboard. It does not require an external keyboard to be synced to have keyboard functionality but, if I so choose, I can utilize one to have a physical keyboard.

      So, by your keyboard criteria, my desktop is not a computer and my iPad is.

    7. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by Omestes · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So anything with a CPU and some flavor of user interface is now a PC? Don't forget most DVD or Bluray players, and most televisions too (our televisions all have a nice GPL notice in the back, viva Linux).

      This TFA is pretty stupid. I love my Nexus 7 (10" Transformer less so), but I wouldn't consider it a PC. I see PCs as general computing devices, with their primary attribute being the term "general". Right now there is a very large amount of things that I just can't do on my tablet, or phone that I can do on my PC. Further, PCs are expandable, and extensible (both of these being somewhat prerequisites to "general"). Sure, some computers have limited, and mostly unacceptable, hardware (Macs), but even then there is a very large pool of peripherals, and they still have a very large ability to modify the software for almost any task. Tablets don't really do this, there are abilities that they are not going to really support, either by design or intrinsic factors.

      My Nexus is a toy computer. I love it, but it isn't an actual PC.

      Yes, being literal, it would be a PC, since it computes, as in crunches numbers, and it is personal, as in I own one. I think the term has evolved beyond this though.

      Even dumber, considering a Kindle a PC is just... I don't even have words. A Kindle, a normal Kindle, is a dumb device that is only good for a single purpose. A Fire, or the various Nook flavored bargain tablets, might be PCs, if we accept full tablets as PCs.

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
    8. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by Omestes · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A Mac is a PC. Especially now that there is NO difference, whatsoever, in hardware. Back in the PPC days, you might have a case, but I doubt it, since they were personal computers just like Windows and Linux boxes. Unless what GUI something uses defines whether something is a PC or not, and then, is anything not running whatever UI existed when the term was coined actually a PC either? The only difference between a Mac and a Linux or Windows box is what OS they have.

      The consumer can be wrong, and various companies have abused the term to help them along. This doesn't actually change the meaning of the word, since there really isn't a way of defining that doesn't include Macs. Unless, of course your only definition of "PC" is "not a Mac", which is kind of stupid.

      That said, I don't buy tablets being PCs, because they aren't "general" or generally extendable, which I would consider being important to being classified as a personal computer. If I did accept them, then I have to include phones, consoles, most modern televisions and bluray players, most routers, or basically anything having a CPU and an operating system.

      Calling tablets PCs runs into the "Pluto problem", if we let them be a PC, then pretty much everything has to be a PC, and the term loses what (very little) use it once had.

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
    9. Re:So tablets at PCs now? by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ... why we should be having this argument on Slashdot of all places is mind boggling.

      Why? Because some folks around here hate Apple so much that they believe that any report showing them as #1 at anything must obviously be because of incorrect definition or incorrect methodology or something. Plus, there are many in the Slashdot community who cannot accept the notion that definitions of categories might actually change over time. Unless it has a detachable, full-size keyboard, a monitor that sits on a desk, and an ugly box, it's not a PC, regardless of functionality.

      --
      That is all.
  2. Hmmm. by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apple is now the top politically correct vendor. That must be because they censor apps.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  3. Wrong by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    McDonalds is the top PC vendor, if you include Big Macs.

  4. Run for the hills!!!! by BLToday · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The "tablet is not a PC" crowd will attack. And then the "tablet is a PC" crowd will counter-attack. Out of nowhere "some tablet are PC" crowd will join, but haven't shown their alliance. The "Apple is evil" along with the "Android/Chrome OS FTW" groups will join forces to fight everybody. Unfortunately, the hills may not protect us from the "Win8 will kill everyone".

  5. Re:Let's just set an official category definition. by falcon5768 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Funny I can ssh and code on my iPad just fine without even jailbreaking.... also my iPhone. So sorry that "consumption" category is bullshit.

    --

    "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."