Surface dominates 2-in-1 shipments in Australia

Microsoft is the clear leader in two-in-one portable computer shipments in Australia, with the vendor taking a 69 percent share of shipments in the third quarter, according to IDC.

While the IDC numbers do not reveals sales, the latest figures show that Microsoft was in front by a wide margin in the third quarter when it came to shipments. Asus is the next closest rival with 13 percent share of shipments in the third quarter of 2014.

Toshiba is ranked third, according to IDC, with seven percent. It is followed by Acer with three percent and Lenovo with 2 percent.

Not only is Microsoft dominating the two-in-one charts in terms of share of shipments, but if IDC’s numbers are any indication, it has grown that share in the last year – up from 53 percent in the third quarter of 2013.

The Surface Pro 3 has had a significant impact on Microsoft’s revenues, with Surface revenues recently reaching US$908 million in the vendor’s first quarter.

The device has been a sore point for the channel, due to Microsoft's decision to restrict the channel to just 14 authorised resellers.

Two-in-one shipments in Australia are growing at a faster rate than tablets, though from a much lower base. Two-in-one shipments were 76,280 in the third quarter of 2014, according to IDC, representing a 55 percent year-on-year increase.

By contrast, there were 756,592 tablet shipments in the third quarter of 2014, a decline of 26 percent year-on-year.

A notable achiever in the tablets market was Pendo, which had 11 percent share of shipments in the third quarter of 2014, up from 1 percent a year before.

According to IDC, that made Pendo the third-ranked tablet vendor in Australia in terms of share of shipments for the quarter – ahead of Acer, which had two percent share, and behind Samsung with 20 percent and Apple with 52 percent.

Pendo has been making a name of itself by selling low-cost tablets through major retail chains – the vendor had an $89 tablet running Windows 8.1 in Coles recently and a $199 Windows tablet sold by Target.