Apple had a blockbuster fourth quarter, according to earnings stats released yesterday. But just how good was it? If you look at the data, it appears that Apple sold more iPads last quarter than HP sold computers – and HP is the world's top PC maker.
Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the last quarter, up from 7.33 million during the same quarter last year. According to Jan. 11 estimates from Gartner, HP shipped 14.7 million PCs during the same time period, for a difference of about 730,000.
Those numbers make Apple "the largest technology company in the world," Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White said in a Wednesday note to investors.
Apple sales "crushed" Ticonderoga's predictions, White said, which had put iPad sales at 13 million.
When it comes to PC sales alone, Apple still has a ways to go to overtake HP, having sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter. According to Gartner, Apple also has to top Lenovo, Dell, Acer, and Asus in worldwide sales to attain PC dominance.
There was discussion last year, however, over whether tablets should be included in PC sales totals. Canalys said yes, causing a bit of stir by announcing that Apple was the world's number-one PC vendor.
That, of course, would put Apple "PC sales" at a staggering 20.63 million for the quarter. For now, though, most analyst firms are still differentiating between computers and tablets.
During last night's earnings call, though, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he believed "that there will come a day that the tablet market and units is larger than the PC market."
"People really want to do multiple things with their tablets," Cook said. "And therefore, we don't really see these limited function tablets and e-readers being in the same category."
For more, see 6 Things Apple Can Do With Its Cash Hoard.