iPad to take 12% of PC market

The Apple iPad will claim 12% of the PC market within the next 12 months, according to the latest predictions from Goldman Sachs.

Analyst Bill Shope says tablets overall will sell 54.7 million units next year and 37.2 million of those will be iPads, saying that Apple will become “one of the largest vendors in the global personal computing market”.

“With the iPad, however, Apple is now offering a unique computing device that is priced for the mass market. In fact, our Apple forecast assumes that the iPad segment will surpass Apple’s Mac business in revenues and profits by the end of fiscal 2011 — the first full year of iPad shipments.”

Shope goes on to say that if PC sales are included, the Apple’s combined market share with iPad and Macs will reach 12% in 2011.