Market Analysts crown Apple the PC Market kings

Independent tech market analysts Canalys have crowned Apple the kings of the current Worldwide PC Market which has undergone a 7% market increase as of Q1 2011, fueled primarily, by tablet growth.

Apple sit among the top 5 companies responsible for this positive growth based on market shares accounting for 187.9% increase in growth alongside HP, Acer, Dell and Leonovo (who were the second largest contributor to the growth with a 17% contribution to the overall result).

Amidst the first quarter of 2011, tablet shipments reached 6.4 million units worldwide, 74% of which was thanks to Apple and it’s iPads. Both the iPad and iPad 2 are now available in 59 different markets worldwide, but the true financial effects of the iPad 2 won’t apparently be seen until Q2′s figures are processed.

In terms of usage statistics, Canalys found users were treating their tablets more as PC replacements, rather than just media players or e-book readers, with 10% of Western Europeans using up to 24 different application categories (such as communications, entertainment, leisure/lifestyle, and financial/business). This wasn’t so true of non-iPad users who tended to sway to more basic/functional apps, such as email and web.

This might all sound like great news, but the tablet has reshaped the face of the PC industry and poses a serious threat to the traditional business model with its versatility and mobility and the gap between power/performance and battery life becoming ever smaller.

Canalys advises that the most revenue to be had beyond the initial tablet purchase is app and in-app purchases, and by association, offering apps that make full use of a tablets sizes and unique functionality.

Check the source for a more extensive breakdown of Q1.

Source