Apple No. 1 in mobile-PC market share worldwide

Once again, another survey found Apple dominated the tablet market in both the fourth quarter and throughout 2011 overall.

Apple controls 59.1 percent of the worldwide tablet market as of the fourth quarter, according to NPD DisplaySearch.

(Credit: Apple) First, Apple shipped 23.4 million mobile PCs in the fourth quarter of 2011 (26 percent of the global market share) and over 62.8 million mobile PCs throughout the year--both mostly filled with iPad orders, according to the latest figures from NPD DisplaySearch.

Although mobile-PC shipments grew by 12 percent quarter to quarter and by 44 percent year over year, NPD DisplaySearch senior analyst Richard Shim explained in the report that mobile-PC brands had a difficult time last year.

Mobile-PC brands read the writing on the wall in the fourth quarter. Consumer demand for notebooks was expected to be weak following modest back-to-school results, especially with the expected launch of Windows 8 on the horizon, and increasing interest in tablet PCs. As a result, brands focused their typical holiday price cuts on tablets to boost demand.