While PC sales for businesses are on the rise, PC consumer sales declined last quarter, raising the question of whether Apple or the Smartphone industry is to blame.

According to Computerworld, businesses bought a lot of computer hardware last month, with HP reporting an increase of 33 percent; Dell says its large enterprise revenue went up by 12 percent and IBM experiencing 21 percent growth in the business market. However, consumer spending is on the decline for Dell that saw a decrease of 8 percent, and HP that noted a 1 percent decline in PC consumer sales.  The one company that doesn’t seem to have this problem is Apple. Last month saw Apple experience gain of 71 percent, thanks in large part to the 7.33 million iPads it sold in the past quarter.

Mobile Computing News advances that the reason for this phenomenon is that smartphone sales are quickly replacing PC sales among consumers and that the computer industry is going through a transition time where handheld PCs are taking over.

Some analysts are attributing the decrease in consumer PC to the fact that people would rather buy an Ipad than a laptop. “Independent business spending came back very strongly but interest in and actual sales of the iPad have taken an impressive bite out of the consumer PC business,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group to Computerworld

Others don’t think that companies such as HP should be worried. Richard Shim for DisplaySearch says that the TouchPad tablet could allow HP to hold its own in the PC market.

“In the mobile PC category, I expect there to be a shakeup in the ranking because of the introduction of new tablets, he said.”If we look specifically at the tablet PC market, I expect Apple to maintain the top spot. However, if we look at the mobile PC market, which combines notebook, mini-note and tablet PCs, the success of HP’s TouchPad will be very impactful to the overall rankings,” he added to PC World.