The debut of Microsoft's Surface with Windows 8 Pro this week continues to fuel the debate over what should be considered a "tablet" and what should be a "computer," with at least one research firm combining the two. Canalys reported the results of its Q4 2012 PC shipments on Wednesday, and the numbers look quite good for Apple with a healthy 27 million units shipped and more than 20 percent market share for the first time ever. No, you didn't miss any significant Mac sales in Apple's fiscal Q1 2013 earnings -- Canalys is lumping the company's iPad in with more traditional personal computers, which makes one tablet for every six PCs shipped during the last three months of 2012. Unfortunately, the research firm's peers may not be quite ready to lump tablets in with personal computers, even though it's clear that many people are starting to buy iPads and other slates with the intention of replacing a traditional PC. "Apple timed the launch of the iPad mini well," said Pin-Chen Tang, Canalys Research Analyst. "Its success proves there is a clear demand for pads with smaller screens at a more affordable price. Without the launch, Apple would surely have lost more ground to its competitors." While that opinion may be debatable, there's no denying that the iPad mini helped propel Apple's 2012 holiday season, eclipsing other PC makers such as HP and Lenovo with 11 percent of the market, Samsung with nine percent and newly private Dell, who shipped only 9.7 million uni
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