NPD Group: Top 10 Best-Selling Laptop Brands Of Q2
The Best Of The Best
Research Group NPD has released its list of the top 10 best-selling laptop brands in terms of market share for the second quarter of this year, and it shows some changes in the ranks from last year's list.
The worldwide laptop market is not as strong as it once was now that tablets and smartphones have taken over the mobile space, but it is improving from recent years.
Vendors are pricing their laptops more competitively as the average price of a laptop this year was $732.22, a 7.1 percent decrease in cost from last year's $788.39 average price of laptop models.
Here's the 10 best-selling laptop brands of the second quarter of 2014, according to NPD.
10. Fujitsu
The Japanese IT equipment and services company starts off our list at number 10.
Fujitsu has a market share of 0.6 percent in the second quarter of this year, which is actually an improvement from the 0.4 percent it had in the year-ago quarter.
Manufacturer of the Lifebook laptop line, Fujitsu offers convertible tablet-PC models, Ultrabooks, lighter model laptops and office-focused models.
Fujitsu launched a pair of new enterprise-focused E-series models of its Lifebook line in late June, aimed at winning over IT administrators by featuring "interchangeable parts."
9. Toshiba
Toshiba saw a loss in market share from last year, falling from 1.4 percent in the second quarter of 2013, to 1.2 percent this year.
The Japanese company's Satellite was one of its more popular products.
The Toshiba Satellite features a touch-screen display, competitive price and enterprise focus and comes with Windows 8.
Toshiba released a new 4K Ultra HD model of the Satellite in April, calling it the first laptop with a "technicolor screen."
In late May, the company released the Satellite Radius, a multimode laptop that features a 360-degree "flip-and-fold" design.
8. Panasonic
Panasonic saw a year-over-year loss of 0.5 percent in the second quarter as it fell from 2.4 percent last year to 1.9 percent this year.
The Japanese company is the maker of the unique and rugged line of Toughbooks, featuring durable casing and pushing away from other vendors' ideology of alluring customers with thin frames.
These are big, thick, heavy and durable machines that are far tougher than a typical mainstream laptop and are used in a multitude of professions, including construction, law enforcement, manufacturing and more.
Panasonic did not release a new laptop during the second quarter but did upgrade its semi-rugged model of the Toughbook 53 in July.
7. Dell
Dell saw its market share drop 0.6 percent in the second quarter this year, falling from 4.1 percent last year to 3.5 percent in the June quarter.
The Round Rock, Texas, company launched its new Inspiron 5000 laptops in early May, in 14-, 15- and 17-inch models.
The new models come with 10-finger touch-screen HD displays in thinner and lighter models, with Intel Core i processors.
Dell also offers 20 GB of free cloud storage with its new models, which are packed with over 8 hours of battery life.
6. Asus
Asus increased its second-quarter market share from 3.8 percent last year to 4.2 percent this year.
The Taiwanese company is a vendor of many different laptop models, including its Transformer Notebooks.
Asus announced the Transformer Book Flip in early June, featuring a versatile 360-degree hinge, and can be used as a tablet or laptop while running on Windows 8.1.
The 2-in-1 laptop and tablet come in three different models: 13.3-, 14- and 15.6-inch, 10-point multi-touch-screen HD displays and runs on an i7 Intel Core processor.
5. Apple
Apple saw no change in its second-quarter laptop market share numbers as it controlled 4.5 percent of the market both last year and this year, but fell from fourth to fifth on the list of top vendors.
The Cupertino, Calif., company released an update to its line of MacBook Airs in late April, featuring a faster processor and chopping $100 off the price point.
Apple makes 11-inch and 13-inch models of the MacBook Air, starting at $899 and $999, respectively. Both have a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 chip coming standard, and start at 128 GB of storage space.
Apple's business-focused MacBook Pro was updated just this week.
4. Samsung
The Korean conglomerate dropped 4.2 percent in year-over-year market share, falling from 17.7 percent last year, to 13.5 percent in the second quarter of this year. As a result, Samsung fell from third to fourth on the list of top second-quarter laptop vendors.
Samsung did not launch a new laptop during the second quarter, but unveiled its Chromebook 2 in March.
Samsung's two new Chromebook 2 models run on the Chrome OS, featuring an 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch HD displays. Each run on over 8 hours of battery life and come stocked with 4 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage space.
3. Acer
As the manufacturer of the top-selling Chromebook on the market, it's no wonder that Acer is high on the list.
Acer was the big winner in market growth in the second quarter, with 9.3 percent year-over-year growth. Acer had 13.7 percent market share in the second quarter of this year after 4.4 percent last year.
The Taiwanese company has a long line of competitively price C720 Chromebook models and was one of the first companies to release a Chromebook in 2011. The company recently upgraded its C720 laptop with an Intel Core i3 processor.
Acer also released the Aspire Switch 10, its new 2-in-1 notebook, in late April, featuring a magnetic snap hinge to use as a touch-screen laptop or tablet.
2. HP
The Palo Alto, Calif., company had a 27 percent market share in the second quarter of this year, a minor 0.1 percent growth from the 26.9 percent it had in the year-ago quarter.
One of HP's more popular laptop models is the HP Envy line.
The HP Envy 17t Touch features an HD touch screen running on Windows 8.1. It also runs on an Intel Core i7 Dual Core processor and comes stocked with 16 GB of memory.
The HP Chromebook 14 is also one of the more popular Chromebooks on the market, thanks to its competitive pricing, its colorful HD display and its 1.4GHz Intel Celeron processor.
1. Lenovo
Lenovo is once again the leader in laptop market share, despite seeing a 2.8 percent year-over-year drop.
The Chinese company had a 28.8 percent market share in the second quarter, after a 31.7 percent market share last year.
Lenovo has seen a large growth in international markets with mobile devices, including smartphones, and has sold well in the U.S. with laptop lines such as the ThinkPads.
The ThinkPad 10 was announced in May for a summer release and features 64 GB of storage, a 1.6GHz quad-core Intel Atom processor and runs on Windows 8.1.