Apple shipped the most mobile PCs in the world, thanks to the iPad

Apple shipped 17.2 million mobile PCs in the first quarter of 2012, leading the world in units shipped by 22.5 percent, according to a study by NPD DisplaySearch.

You would think the market would be saturated by now, but Apple is still shipping tablets and laptops by the millions — and with new releases like the latest iPad, interest will continue to grow. Compared to the same quarter last year, Apple shipped 118 percent more mobile PCs, eighty percent of which were iPads. That accounts for 162 percent growth year over year.

The latest iPad launch, which occurred in March 2012, was an obvious and major contributor to Apple’s share of voice in the mobile PC market. The company sold three million iPads in its debut weekend alone, and began to roll the tablet out to a number of countries thereafter. A lot of its popularity stemmed from an improved screen, which quadrupled the amount of pixels available in the display, along with 4G connectivity.

The iPad accounted for so much mobile PC growth, that Apple didn’t even show up on the list of companies who shipped the most notebook units. HP won that game. But the amount of iPads shipped was enough to raise Apple up over its competitors in the overall market.

Hp followed Apple in overall mobile PC shipments with 8.9 million unit shipped. Acer came next with 6.9 units ships, Lenovo with 5.9 units shipped and Dell brought up the rear with 5.6 units shipped.

via NPD DisplaySearch, Image via Grant_Robertson/Flickr