Mac sales continue decline in Q3, Apple drops to 5th place worldwide

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited October 2017
Following the downward spiral of the overall PC market, Apple's Mac sales continued to atrophy in the third calendar quarter of 2017 to put the company at fifth place among fellow vendors, according to fresh estimates from research firm Gartner.




According to Gartner's latest numbers, published on Tuesday, Apple managed to ship 4.6 million units over the third quarter, down 5.6 percent year over year. The performance was good enough to capture 6.9 percent of the market, identical to Apple's second quarter results as determined by the market research firm.

The numbers are peculiar considering the three-month period marks the first full reporting period of sales for new Mac models debuted in June. As AppleInsider noted when Apple revealed quarterly earnings in August, market research firms like Gartner often underestimate Mac sales.

Despite owning the largest year-over-year decline out of Gartner's top-five vendors, Asus edged out Apple to take the No. 4 spot with 4.9 million units shipped and 7.3 percent of the market, down 9 percent from the same time last year. By contrast, the Taiwanese manufacturer suffered a 10 percent contraction in shipments during the second quarter.

HP finished first for the second quarter in a row with 14.6 million PCs shipped, enough to take 21.8 percent of the worldwide market. With sales up 4.4 percent on the year, the U.S. tech titan was the only major vendor to exhibit growth this quarter.

Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo continued to see declines, dropping from 14.6 million units shipped in 2016 to 14.4 million units in the most recent quarter. While not as substantial a slip as last period's 8.4 percent decline, the 1.5 percent decline in sales further adds to HP's growing lead.

Dell rounded out the top three with 10.2 million units shipped to take a 15.2 percent marketshare, down 0.4 percent year over year.

Coming in sixth, Acer sold 4.3 million units for a 6.5 percent share of the market, down 6.2 percent year on year.

With significant declines from all but one of the top-five vendors, worldwide shipments contracted 3.6 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to Gartner.

"While there were signs of stabilization in the PC industry in key regions, including EMEA, Japan and Latin America, the relatively stable results were offset by the U.S. market, which saw a 10 percent year-over-year decline in part because of a very weak back-to-school sales season," said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

According to Kitagawa, demand for enterprise PCs continued to drive sales across all regions, with Windows 10 upgrades leading the way.

Apple fared similarly in the U.S., where Mac is more widely distributed among consumers. For the third quarter, Mac shipments dipped to 1.9 million units, down 7.6 percent year over year. The performance landed Apple up a spot in third place with a 12.8 percent marketshare. Mac beat out Lenovo, which dropped from third to fourth on massive shipment declines of 25.2 percent. The Chinese company shipped 1.8 million units in the U.S. over the three month period ending in September.

HP came in first in the U.S. with 4.7 million units shipped to take a 31.6 percent marketshare, while Dell placed second with 3.8 million shipments to capture 25.6 percent of the market. Asus rounded out the top five with 643,000 units shipped, down 22 percent year over year.

As usual, IDC released its own set of numbers on Tuesday, which put Apple in fourth place with 4.9 million shipments good for 7.3 percent of the worldwide PC market. That figure is up 0.3 percent from the same time last year.

IDC puts HP in first with 15.3 million units shipped for a 22.8 percent marketshare, up 6 percent. Lenovo saw 0.1 percent growth on the year to take second place with 14.5 million shipments, good enough for 21.6 percent of the market, as Dell placed third on 10.8 million units shipped and a 16.1 percent marketshare. As it did last year, Asus rounded out the top five with 4.2 million units shipped, down 14.6 percent year over year.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 105
    bb-15bb-15 Posts: 283member
    In 2016 Apple was in 5th place. 
    In 2017 Apple remained in 5th place. 
  • Reply 2 of 105
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    edited October 2017 kitatitavon b7entropyssunwukong
  • Reply 3 of 105
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,038member
    Remember when Acer was rising up through the unit sales ranks with shitty* netbooks?

    * I know, that's redundant.

    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    The Mac HW and macOS have never been better.
    StrangeDaystmaypscooter63macxpressjony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 105
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    If your 'opinion' was based on this preliminary number of shipment, you are clearly missing the point.
    StrangeDays
  • Reply 5 of 105
    If I had a nickel for every time some analyst predicted Mac sales, and were found out to be wrong when Apple released the actual numbers....I could get myself an iPhone X.
    tmaypscooter63christopher126watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 105
    ben20ben20 Posts: 126member
    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    I run Windows 10, 7, XP on Macs....you know, that luxury of having several operating systems at top speed available is just so priceless, in comparison Mac's OS is of course the best. 
    MacProchristopher126jony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 105
    well they've missed a sale for me cause I built a hackintosh with the 32GB RAM they wouldn't put in a MBP
    [Deleted User]sunwukongdysamoria
  • Reply 8 of 105
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,038member
    well they've missed a sale for me cause I built a hackintosh with the 32GB RAM they wouldn't put in a MBP
    You built a laptop?
    StrangeDaysboltsfan17dws-2pscooter63macxpresskruegdudechristopher126Rayz2016jax44dysamoria
  • Reply 9 of 105
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,507member
    Apple needs to make affordable Mac minis!!!!
    mike54[Deleted User]donjuansunwukongdysamoria
  • Reply 10 of 105
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,391member
    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    Your post is 100% sensationalist trash, and from a quick peruse of your post history, so is everything you ever post. All your posts are completely negative, hyper-vitriolic rants against Apple, cementing the fact that you're nothing but a troll, without a shred of goodwill or objectivity.

    Apple products are today more useful, usable, robust, well-liked, and more successful than anytime in Apple's history.

    Apple's vision is clear, consistent, and deep, unlike their competitors that seem to "reset" their vision every product launch. All that garbage in your post is nothing but your own internal delusions, and desperately trying to fit "evidence" into your toxic and dishonest narrative.

    All this, ignoring the fact that your powers of deduction are pretty horrid. You honestly believe this has ANYTHING to do with "software"? Comparing everything vs Macs is the same comparing all Android shipments against iPhones. A useless comparison because Apple only competes in the high end segment of the market, and not with $150-$600 garbage laptops and computers (that most of these numbers make up) and $50-$200 "smartphones".

    edited October 2017 StrangeDaysmacplusplustmaypscooter63macky the mackybrucemcsdw2001jony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 105
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 13,111member
    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    Nah, that’s just all sour grapes opinion presented as fact. I dunno why you hate apple gear, but I enjoy almost every point you poopooed. 

    Your argument ultimately fails because beside industry sales declining, apple leads in profit — people vote with their wallets. 
    macplusplustmaypscooter63watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 105
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    Oh dear. And its raining outside :-(   And I bet that bottle of beer you are nursing is half empty ;-(  And its not even cold :-(   Its just a bitch, aint it? 
    SolifastasleepbrucemcjroyStrangeDaysjony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 105
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,450member
    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    Or most people use iPhones and iPads for their daily computing needs over a laptop or a stationary desktop. 
    king editor the gratefastasleepjony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 105
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    The computing power of mobile devices has advanced to the point that most people can do what they want to do with their phone or tablet. A desktop computer is no longer needed for the average consumer. Neither is a laptop. Of course there will always be a need by academics, scientists, engineers, researchers, accountants, etc for high powered machines so the PC market will not be going anywhere for the foreseeable future. We juts need fewer of them.
    canukstormbadmonkGG1propodjony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 105
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,038member
    spice-boy said:
    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    Or most people use iPhones and iPads for their daily computing needs over a laptop or a stationary desktop. 
    I used to update my Mac nearly every year, then the iPhone came out plus Intel stopped moving their processors ahead as fast. Then the iPad came out, which didn't affect my Mac usage much, but it became the primary device for many. Now that the Series 3 Watch is out I may not be updating my iPhone every year—it certainly looks like I'll be sticking with my iPhone 7 Plus for another year, but it's not because the new iPhones or iOS 11 have "atrophied." Quite the opposite, but I now have other supplementary Apple products to use. I know you get this, but I don't think dysamoria does.
    jony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 105
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,148member
    Pretty sure the profitability of their shipments is most important to Apple.

    "Sure, we lose money on every PC. But we make it up in the volume."
    SolimacxpressGG1Rayz2016entropysjony0
  • Reply 17 of 105
    I have a late 2012 Mac and a 2014 Mac book pro. I will update every 6 six years. 
    christopher126LeBart1968watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 105
    First of all, people tend to keep their Macs longer before upgrading and overall the PC market is flat. Apple runs it's Mac division at a pretty healthy profit compared to Windows based counterparts. It's a pretty decent business, for Apple, and the only real blind spot (besides USB-C on some models) is lack of a professional tower that is expandable via PCIe cards, etc.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 105
    darkvaderdarkvader Posts: 1,146member
    Soli said:
    Remember when Acer was rising up through the unit sales ranks with shitty* netbooks?

    * I know, that's redundant.

    dysamoria said:
    This is not a surprise, since their software is atrophying. I mean, with the way they gutted iWork, what's the use in having a mac if you're just going to put a crippled MS Office installation on it? Apple have de-professionalized every product they have. They're addicted to Wall Street BS and repeat iPhone sales. They have no vision, no leadership that isn't just more tonerhead mindlessness, no sense of useability (slowly killing every bit of usability that drove them up to 2013)... all the compelling excellence that Apple used to be known for has been ditched, replaced with ugly flat, minimalism, bugs that never get fixed, and missing functionality. iPhone was both a critical success for Apple and the lure to follow mindless cart-before-horse business practices that are killing the mac, Mac OS, and every piece of software Apple still has left.
    The Mac HW and macOS have never been better.
    They've both been better, the 2012 MacBook Pro was much better than the current touchbar "Pro", the 2012 Mac Pro was much better than the "current" 2013, the 2012 Mac mini was much better than the "current" 2014.  The 2011 MacBook Pro had a maximum of 16GB RAM, and a brand-new MacBook Pro has a maximum of... 16GB RAM.  You can put a 4TB SSD in the 2012, the 2017 maxes out at 2TB.  If you give up the internal optical drive in the 2012, you can put 8TB of SSD in, the 2017 maxes out at - yep, still 2TB.

    And lots of things in Mac OS X haven't been right since 10.6, and it got much uglier with 10.10.  It's not more stable, it's not faster, it's not more usable, the server version is a joke, and we still don't have scroll arrows.
    edited October 2017 sunwukongdysamoria
  • Reply 20 of 105
    in a few years the Canadian dollar lost 30% of it's value to the American dollar. On top of that, the price of Apple Laptop increase. I guess many, like me, are stretching a little bit the time they keep their computer,
    hippieapplechicwatto_cobra
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