Apple's MacBook Pro, iMac sales beat all industry estimates, defeat contracting market
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook this week took a swipe at Mac sales estimates, as true sales figures came in higher than predicted by Gartner, pushing Apple to a third consecutive quarter of growth in both volume and earnings.
In Tuesday's quarterly earnings report, Apple declared sales of 4.29 million units of Macs, up slightly from the same period in 2016. While not as profound a jump as the holiday quarter when the 2016 MacBook Pro launched, availability of new machines for the most recent quarter was for only half the reporting period or less, depending on configuration.
Gartner's preliminary statistics, published July 12, showed Apple rising one spot to end the quarter in fourth place with 4.24 million units shipped to vendors and sold to customers directly. The estimated performance was down 0.4 percent compared to last year, when the company sold 4.25 million Macs.
The difference in units between Apple's actual sales numbers and Gartner's shipment estimates means that the company had a year-over-year growth in the Mac, not a contraction. Apple has maintained Mac sales growth for the entirety of the 2017 fiscal year.
According to the same estimates, Apple captured 6.9 percent of the worldwide market for the quarter, up from 6.7 percent in the second quarter of 2016. At the time, AppleInsider noted that the numbers seemed peculiar, given Apple's wide swath of updates of its Mac line in June at the WWDC.
Cook declared in the earnings conference call that the Mac's volume worldwide has grown seven percent year-over-year. Cook also noted that the growth was despite IDC's latest estimate of a four percent contraction in the PC market.
Gartner predicted in January that worldwide device shipments of PCs, tablets, and smartphones would remain static until 2018. While that may be the case industry-wide, Apple's actual sales figures have exceeded Gartner's shipment predictions consistently -- and the rest of the industry reports shipments, not actual sales.
It is not clear when Apple will refresh its product lineup again. Apple updated its MacBook Pro and iMac lines at the WWDC, and teased the forthcoming iMac Pro which will start shipping later in 2017. In April, Apple said that there was a new Mac Pro coming, but not in 2017, and that the Mac mini was an important part of the company's product plan.
In Tuesday's quarterly earnings report, Apple declared sales of 4.29 million units of Macs, up slightly from the same period in 2016. While not as profound a jump as the holiday quarter when the 2016 MacBook Pro launched, availability of new machines for the most recent quarter was for only half the reporting period or less, depending on configuration.
Gartner's preliminary statistics, published July 12, showed Apple rising one spot to end the quarter in fourth place with 4.24 million units shipped to vendors and sold to customers directly. The estimated performance was down 0.4 percent compared to last year, when the company sold 4.25 million Macs.
The difference in units between Apple's actual sales numbers and Gartner's shipment estimates means that the company had a year-over-year growth in the Mac, not a contraction. Apple has maintained Mac sales growth for the entirety of the 2017 fiscal year.
According to the same estimates, Apple captured 6.9 percent of the worldwide market for the quarter, up from 6.7 percent in the second quarter of 2016. At the time, AppleInsider noted that the numbers seemed peculiar, given Apple's wide swath of updates of its Mac line in June at the WWDC.
Cook declared in the earnings conference call that the Mac's volume worldwide has grown seven percent year-over-year. Cook also noted that the growth was despite IDC's latest estimate of a four percent contraction in the PC market.
Gartner predicted in January that worldwide device shipments of PCs, tablets, and smartphones would remain static until 2018. While that may be the case industry-wide, Apple's actual sales figures have exceeded Gartner's shipment predictions consistently -- and the rest of the industry reports shipments, not actual sales.
It is not clear when Apple will refresh its product lineup again. Apple updated its MacBook Pro and iMac lines at the WWDC, and teased the forthcoming iMac Pro which will start shipping later in 2017. In April, Apple said that there was a new Mac Pro coming, but not in 2017, and that the Mac mini was an important part of the company's product plan.
Comments
Where are all of these people who basically said the new MacBook Pro will be a failure because of its lack of ports, you need a dongle for everything, its way too expensive? And don't give me this crap about well what if it had more ports and was cheaper, they'd sell twice as much. Thats absolute pure BS! That touch bar is just a gimmick and won't help sell the MacBook Pro.
Where are these people now? All quiet with their tail between their legs in defeat as usual. They never learn. Apple know its market a hell of a lot better than any one of us here. They see things we will never see. They have more data than we could possibly ever get. We need to stop trying to run Apple to suit our own needs. Our needs may not be the needs of the majority which is a hell of a lot more important to Apple as a company than a very small set of customers.
I was amused to see how the haters on MR spun the increase in ipad sales — “This is just the cheap new ipad padding the numbers!” first time i’d heard of anyone criticizing Apple for offering cheap ipads! what will they complain about next?!!
I can applaud Apple's great successes and still believe that their pricing is too high or that there are flaws in the product design unless Apple's strategy is to abandon mass markets and return to being a high-end, very high-margin niche player. Nothing wrong with that, but it's the difference between Toyota and BMW.
Personally, I bought the late-2016 MBP because my late-2008 MBP died and couldn't be repaired, but I definitely wasn't happy with the pricing and the fact that I can't myself replace/upgrade the battery, memory and storage. And then there's the fact that I find the Touch Bar almost useless, I miss the mag safe and the touch pad is way too large and constantly interferes with my typing and I'm getting nowhere near the claimed battery life. Since I purchased it anyway, from Apple's perspective, they're successful. But the bad taste it leaves in my mouth might make it the very last Mac I buy and I've been a Mac customer since the beginning.
2) There is overlap between Toyota and BMW. There are Toyotas that can be had for low and mid-range prices, and BMWs that can be had for Toyota's mid and high range prices. Apple is no different.
All good points. If you want the most powerful MBP in 13" you have to get the TouchBar. It's not an option. And if you want the 15" you get the touch bar no matter what.
I just bought a 2015 MBP because I didn't want the new keyboard but its still a sell .
But in general Apple ain't going to be hurting even if they lose a few sells.
I'll admit, I was skeptical of Apple's continued success after the new Macbook pros and all of their new controversial features, however I am impressed and happy that they continue to succeed...sort of. In a way I am concerned that this validates their strategy, as I miss magsafe, I miss the old keyboard, I miss legacy ports, though I'll admit I haven't tried the touch bar... and I know there will be someone to jump in and defend those features and tell me to get with the times because it is the future...its inevitable so have at me lol.
While I am at it, I miss flush cameras on the backs of iPhones. Sigh...
Edit: Whoops, the link I posted earlier is not credible as it is simply based on the opinions of laptop mag. I thought I had seen data somewhere that consumer polls indicated declining satisfaction with Apple's new laptop, but I must have been mistaken. Perhaps consumers are dealing with the new design better than I had been (mistakenly) lead to believe...wonder if there are some numbers somewhere?
Apple has a very strong brand loyalty...including myself. I keep trying to find ways to justify their new products and try to convince myself I want one. But I just bought the old 2014 MBP and absolutely love it. I'm not a fan of removing the headphone jack or going to all USB-C and all of this other 'courage' bullpoop.
But I'm optimistic that they will start making products I can be more passionate about again! Aesthetically the new Macbooks are gorgeous, just wish they had SD card reader and at least one legacy USB-A port. Once the industry moves on to USB-C in the mainstream, maybe then I can finally get the 2016 design MBPs
4 USB-C is FAR superior to mag-safe + SD card + HDMI + 2 USB-A + 2 TB.
Sometimes you have to kill all the legacy crap to move on, and USB-C + TB 3 is a solid reason to do so.
One more thing, I did prefer the logo being absent at the bottom of the screen and its a minor additional plus about my 2014 MBP retina. I don't like branding as part of the design (though I understand it is important) and continue to appreciate that about the iPhone's front. Apple's logo also tends to be one of the better looking ones out there.
Link;
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_ab.html
From what I know, Apple didn't gave sales numbers per device. What if the majority of notebooks were MBA, Macbook or MBP 13" without Touch Bar? Or maybe MBP 15" that had no option to remove the Touch Bar? Wouldn't that mean that that Touch Bar wasn't an incentive to purchase a Mac?
Those people you talk about were expressing their point of view on how to make the Macbook Pro better, in this case adding a few more ports. If Apple had all the data you mention, how they miss the need for more ports? Don't you thing they would had planned for a better option for their customers?
I don't think that they are trying to run Apple to adapt to their needs. They just want a device that adapt to their needs. And for many of them the Macbook have been their choice for years, and now they feel the 2016/2017 models miss important features that affect their workflow. And if you noticed, sales were flat even with the refresh of most devices. I don't think that's positive at all.
This is something I've been trying to wrap my head around for a while. What features? What can't you get to with USB-C and TB3 that you could on the older machine? In what way is the machine a step backwards?