Mac shipments continue to shrink as Apple loses ground in US PC market

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited July 2014
The latest quarterly PC market tracking data from both Gartner and IDC shows that Apple's U.S. Mac shipments shrunk in the third quarter of calendar 2013, as the overall PC market outpaced Mac hardware.

IDC Q3 2013 PC Vendor Share


The estimates released Wednesday by IDC and Gartner show very different pictures. In IDC's research, domestic Mac sales were off 11.2 percent year over year in the third quarter, while the overall U.S. PC market slid 0.2 percent.

Gartner, meanwhile, found that Apple's shipments slid just 2.3 percent, while the U.S. PC market was actually up 3.5 percent year over year in their models.

Regardless, estimates from both Gartner and IDC suggest that Mac sales are no longer outpacing the PC market at large, at least in America. But the numbers don't include Apple's growing international share, nor does either firm track tablet shipments, such as Apple's market-leading iPad.

IDC Q3 2013 PC Vendor Share


Gartner's third-quarter data pegged HP as the top U.S. PC maker, with year over year growth of 4.5 percent propelling it to a 26.9 percent share. In second was Dell, up 3.3 percent and holding 21 percent of the market, while Apple's estimated 2.1 million shipped units were good for third place, with a 13.4 percent market share. That share is down from 2012, when Apple held 14.2 percent of the U.S. market.

Following Apple was Lenovo with a big 24.6 percent year over year gain and a 10.5 percent share, according to Gartner. Toshiba took fifth with a 7 percent share and a 13.5 percent gain from 2012.

IDC, meanwhile, also found the companies in the same order. But their estimates give Apple a slightly smaller 11.6 percent share of U.S. shipments. IDC estimates that Apple shipped 1.9 million Macs in the U.S. in the third quarter.

As usual, Apple did not crack the top five PC vendors worldwide in either IDC's or Gartner's data. IDC and Gartner both had the top five, in order, as Lenovo, HP, Dell, Acer, and Asus.

Worldwide, IDC estimates that PC shipments 7.6 percent to 81.6 million. Gartner's global numbers estimate an 8.7 percent dip to 80.2 million total units.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 281
    saareksaarek Posts: 1,520member
    Mac shipments in the UK certainly aren't helped by Apple continuously jumping up their prices here whilst keeping them stable in the US.

    The exchange rate is essentially the same now as when the iMacs were released last year yet we are charged another £100 ($160).
  • Reply 1 of 281
    This needs to show a relation to tablet sales. Many are replacing PC's with iPads. How does this all shape up with iPads factored in...I would be curious.
  • Reply 3 of 281
    gustavgustav Posts: 827member
    If you aren't tracking tablets, then you shouldn't track the home PC market at all, IMHO. Many households used to use a PC for web, email, facebook, twitter, games, and photos. These can all be done on a tablet or smartphone now. I wouldn't be surprised to see many young adults forgo a PC altogether now, if not replacing one far less often than they used to.
  • Reply 4 of 281
    rtdunhamrtdunham Posts: 428member

    I love my iPad mini, and my iPhone 5S is a workhorse.  But I love my 11" MBA, too, and I worry the day could come when Apple decides to drop its laptop lines.  A shopper in an Apple store or shopping online sees the attractive phone and tablet alternatives, and of course that takes some sales from PCs.  I hope Apple is willing to support a contracting laptop market for a long time.

  • Reply 5 of 281
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member

    If the iMac refresh was worth a damn- I would have upgraded my 2010.  Easily the most underwhelming iMac update I've seen.  2014 should be the year of the Retina iMac and Fusion drive being standard.  That would actually be an impressive update.

     

    The future of computing/consuming is Tablets 1st, and Desktops 2nd.  Laptops will be a thing of the past before the traditional desktop.  Of course, tablet (or even phone) docking will likely replace the desktop eventually.  Unfortunately, the next several generations of Intel chips are all portability/power consumption focused... they're a giant, sinking ship.

  • Reply 6 of 281
    dugbugdugbug Posts: 283member

    I'd be glad to help apple out if they would refresh the mini to haswell

  • Reply 7 of 281
    No big surprise. Other than the MBA, and more recently iMac, Apple still uses the older IvyBridge CPU. The growth in the consumer market is Smartphones and Tablets and Apple never held more than a tiny share in Enterprise. That said, Mac sales still contribute a hefty amount of revenues and profits so there is every reason for Apple to continue to invest in it. Hopefully the new rMBP's will be out before the end of 2013 :D
  • Reply 8 of 281
    No wonder, I not only one waiting for rMBP with Haswell for more then 4 months now.
  • Reply 9 of 281
    Who cares about stats really? Everybody I know either wants an iMac, an iPad or an iPhone!
  • Reply 10 of 281
    No wonder, I not only one waiting for rMBP with Haswell for more then 4 months now.

    I'm with you there... The money is ready and waiting if only they'd release the damn thing!

    I suspect a sizeable part of the delay is waiting for Intel to get thunderbolt 2 out of the door as I can't see the new MBP not having it if the Mac Pro does.... Fingers crossed the rumoured event on the 22nd has more than just iPads to announce...
  • Reply 11 of 281
    alienzedalienzed Posts: 393member
    also waiting for rMBP refresh... common Apple, it's been almost a year now, you can't wait that long between refreshes... My guess is they are waiting for TB2, but if they had spec bumped it along with the macbook airs, I might have biten. After all, Thunderbolt just doesn't really matter (yet), no consumer peripherals can read or write data fast enough for it to make a difference.
  • Reply 12 of 281
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    This needs to show a relation to tablet sales. Many are replacing PC's with iPads. How does this all shape up with iPads factored in...I would be curious.

    That's irrelevant to these stats. These show two independent sources showing every major OEM gaining some ground (or staying even in one instance) whilst Apple is shrinking their percentage of the PC market share by units.

    If you want to talk about what the tablet (read: iPad) has done to the PC market I would expect Apple's share of that market to be growing overall, especially when it comes to profit share, since there are a great many PC buyers that only ever cared for the cheapest product to do basic tasks that can now enjoy a tablet instead, but higher-tier PC users are still likely to buy another PC, even if less often, and Apple has that segment of the market tied up.


    PS: Can't wait to get my MBP (Retina is now implied) with TB2 and a PCIe SSD within a month.
  • Reply 13 of 281
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    alienzed wrote: »
    also waiting for rMBP refresh... common Apple, it's been almost a year now, you can't wait that long between refreshes... My guess is they are waiting for TB2, but if they had spec bumped it along with the macbook airs, I might have biten. After all, Thunderbolt just doesn't really matter (yet), no consumer peripherals can read or write data fast enough for it to make a difference.

    I'm glad they didn't do that cheap spec bump which would have gotten plenty of buyers like you on the hook who then get to wait years before you buy a new one that can support 4K displays and/or gets buyers like you to complain if they then updated them again just 4 months later with TB2 with support for 4K displays. If I were running Apple I wouldn't have done a simple spec bump either.
  • Reply 14 of 281
    scartartscartart Posts: 201member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DaveMcM76 View Post





    I'm with you there... The money is ready and waiting if only they'd release the damn thing!



    I suspect a sizeable part of the delay is waiting for Intel to get thunderbolt 2 out of the door as I can't see the new MBP not having it if the Mac Pro does.... Fingers crossed the rumoured event on the 22nd has more than just iPads to announce...

    The MBP should be getting a twice yearly update to keep it competitive, if this was the case then a delay such as thunderbolt 2 wouldn't be such an impact. We basically have the situation where people has been putting off a purchase for many months now.

     

    The vast majority of MBPs I see are 13" models used by corporate users, the only thunderbolt accessory they use is a VGA adapter. Just release an updated 13" now without TB2.

  • Reply 15 of 281

    There are a couple other reasons why Apple's Share is shrinking

     

    1) Win8... to run win8 most people buy new PCs... it's usually the easiest and cheapest way to upgrade.

    2) OSX Lion/Mavericks.... to run the latest version of Mac's OS most people... upgrade their current device to the current OS on their current machine.

     

    3) Average useful lifespan of an Mac product is arguably 1.5-2X the length of a PC product (ARGUABLY - Mac laptops are typically more sturdy, and with a greater percentage having no spinning disk, this makes them more reliable, and with less spamware (not no, but less), they degrade over time a bit better than your XP/SP2 or Win7 system.

  • Reply 16 of 281
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,712member
    Gosh, bad news and AAPL is up, who would have guessed?
  • Reply 17 of 281
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    akqies wrote: »
    That's irrelevant to these stats. These show two independent sources showing every major OEM gaining some ground (or staying even in one instance) whilst Apple is shrinking their percentage of the PC market share by units.

    Big deal. ESTIMATES (which are usually wrong) of Apple's sales in one country for one quarter show that PCs have gained a bit of share.

    Considering that Apple's share has grown steadily for at least 5 years from around 3% to around 12-13%, I don't think a minor drop in one quarter means all that much. Especially since they had a whole quarter of MBP sales last year (introduced June 11) and didn't have any new products in the quarter this year.

    Insignificant bump.
  • Reply 18 of 281
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    scartart wrote: »
    The MBP should be getting a twice yearly update to keep it competitive, if this was the case then a delay such as thunderbolt 2 wouldn't be such an impact. We basically have the situation where people has been putting off a purchase for many months now.

    The vast majority of MBPs I see are 13" models used by corporate users, the only thunderbolt accessory they use is a VGA adapter. Just release an updated 13" now without TB2.

    What do you expect them to update it with every 6 months? Intel's tick-tock cycle isn't that often and there aren't nearly enough changes to the rest of the industry for the components they provide to make that viable.

    BY your logic the iPhone should be updated every month to keep ahead of other OEM releases.
  • Reply 19 of 281
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    sog35 wrote: »
    No surprise.  Apple stop shipping Mac's the last two months because of the iMac refresh and the new MacPro.

    While PC builders keep shipping them to Costco warehouses.

    That wouldn't account for the growth experienced by the other manufacturers.
  • Reply 20 of 281
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    jragosta wrote: »
    Big deal. ESTIMATES (which are usually wrong) of Apple's sales in one country for one quarter show that PCs have gained a bit of share.

    Considering that Apple's share has grown steadily for at least 5 years from around 3% to around 12-13%, I don't think a minor drop in one quarter means all that much. Especially since they had a whole quarter of MBP sales last year (introduced June 11) and didn't have any new products in the quarter this year.

    Insignificant bump.

    I hinted toward needing to measure YoY growth, not just a slice of a year, in one of my comments.
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