Some very partial figures market researcher Audits & Surveys Inc – they do not include Tandy Corp’s very substantial business at all – suggest that in 1989, the US personal computer market grew 22%, and that IBM had the largest share by number, followed by Apple Computer Inc and Compaq Computer Corp. Its figures are compiled from returns from about 650 specialist computer stores, and suggest that IBM’s share – by number – was 34.7%, up 3.3 points on 1988 – but some of that business was old ATs, because Audits says PS/2 sales – including the toy Model 25 and the non-Micro Channel Model 30, took 34.4% of the market, up 4.3 points. Apple’s share dipped 5.3 points to 18.4% – but that says little about its business, because in 1989, the Apple II market went into what looks like terminal decline and Apple was emphasising the larger models of the Macintosh, so that even the Mac dropped 0.2 points. Compaq had 16.7%, up 1.5 points, and others – excluding Tandy – took 30.2%, against 29.7% in 1988.
