Apple is selling more portable computers than any other manufacturer.
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Including the iPad, Apple sold 17.2% of mobile computers worldwide in the October-December quarter, according to a report by research group DisplaySearch.
That figure is even more than Hewlett-Packard - the world's top PC maker.Apple has sold nearly 15 million iPads in its first nine months on sale, including 7.3 million in the most recent quarter alone. Without the iPad, Apple is the world's eighth-ranking PC manufacturer.
HP ranks second when it comes to mobile computers, a category that includes laptops, tablet computers and netbooks. Acer, Dell and Toshiba complete the top five.
But Apple's lead does not mean people are buying iPads instead of larger laptops and desktops, said DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim. Rather, it is selling best in countries where most people already own computers.
He said that even though the iPad is relatively inexpensive, with a starting price of 499 US dollars (£310), consumers in emerging markets can only afford one computer and are likely to buy one that is more powerful and not necessarily more portable.
Mr Shim added that Apple will continue to dominate the tablet market for at least a year or two, even though companies such as Motorola Mobility will begin selling tablets running Google's popular Android software which is commonly found on smart phones.
Meanwhile, PCs face competition from another kind of mobile gadget: smart phones. In the fourth quarter, smart phones outsold PCs for the first time ever, according to a report from research group IDC earlier this month.
In that case, too, it is not that people are buying phones instead of PCs. Sales of personal computers are slowing because many consumers already own them and only tend to replace them every three to five years, compared with every two years for phones.
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