Apple gaining PC marketshare despite lower Mac shipments, fresh estimates suggest
Two newly-published sets of preliminary research agree that Apple gained PC marketshare in the March quarter, even as Mac shipments declined year-over-year.
Apple shipped 3.98 million Macs during the three-month period, according to Gartner's latest estimates, a figure down from 4.08 million a year ago. Analysts nevertheless pegged Apple's marketshare at 6.8 percent, up slightly from 6.6 percent. IDC meanwhile calculated March-quarter shipments at 4.06 million, and Apple's share at 6.9 percent, an increase from 6.8 percent last year.
Both Gartner and IDC agreed that Apple ranked fourth in global PC shipments, but differed on who the industry leaders were. IDC listed the top three as HP, Lenovo, and Dell, while Gartner swapped HP and Lenovo's positions.
The two firms also supported the view that the PC industry shrank as a whole, with IDC estimating a 3 percent slip to 58.48 million units, and Gartner a 4.6 percent drop to 58.52 million.
"While the consumer market remained weak, the mix of product availability may have also hindered demand," wrote Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. "In contrast, Chromebook shipments increased by double digits compared with the first quarter of 2018, despite the shortage of entry-level CPUs."
IDC likewise cited a shortage of low-end CPUs as a problem, particularly from Intel, prompting PC makers to use more AMD chips.
On Apple, IDC claimed that while the company recently refreshed some MacBooks, they "have not been met with the greatest fanfare," mostly because of hardware problems that could continue to have lingering sales effects.
Apple is expected to offer an overview -- not hard unit sales -- of Mac's second fiscal quarter performance in an investor conference call after it reports earnings on April 30.
Apple shipped 3.98 million Macs during the three-month period, according to Gartner's latest estimates, a figure down from 4.08 million a year ago. Analysts nevertheless pegged Apple's marketshare at 6.8 percent, up slightly from 6.6 percent. IDC meanwhile calculated March-quarter shipments at 4.06 million, and Apple's share at 6.9 percent, an increase from 6.8 percent last year.
Both Gartner and IDC agreed that Apple ranked fourth in global PC shipments, but differed on who the industry leaders were. IDC listed the top three as HP, Lenovo, and Dell, while Gartner swapped HP and Lenovo's positions.
The two firms also supported the view that the PC industry shrank as a whole, with IDC estimating a 3 percent slip to 58.48 million units, and Gartner a 4.6 percent drop to 58.52 million.
"While the consumer market remained weak, the mix of product availability may have also hindered demand," wrote Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. "In contrast, Chromebook shipments increased by double digits compared with the first quarter of 2018, despite the shortage of entry-level CPUs."
IDC likewise cited a shortage of low-end CPUs as a problem, particularly from Intel, prompting PC makers to use more AMD chips.
On Apple, IDC claimed that while the company recently refreshed some MacBooks, they "have not been met with the greatest fanfare," mostly because of hardware problems that could continue to have lingering sales effects.
Apple is expected to offer an overview -- not hard unit sales -- of Mac's second fiscal quarter performance in an investor conference call after it reports earnings on April 30.
Comments
Good for them.
Today Apple fans routinely point out how Apple takes the lion's share of profit in a market or how buyers of low-end, non-Apple products are cheap and don't spend any money, or can't (because they are poor and some cheap low-end Android or crap PC is the best they can do). And we wonder why so many non-Apple fans think so poorly of Apple fans...
When it comes to developer support, the reason we don't see more developers embrace the Mac is marketshare. Mac marketshare has more or less climbed as high as it's going to climb as long as Apple stays the course. Apple might very well be the fourth or fifth largest computer manufacturer, but when it comes to total marketshare, they are a drop in the bucket compared to Windows. So most developers don't care - and never will care - about the Mac.
While Apple massively gouges its customers with a 40% profit margin, something Apple fans on these forums routinely celebrate (which I've always found very strange considering that we're the ones being gouged!), Dell and others sell you better hardware at sometimes half the price. There's a thriving third party software market for Windows. Those low-end PC customers must be buying lots of third party software, contrary to your suggestion, or the vast majority of developers wouldn't be supporting Windows. If all the money was in Mac development, we'd be spoiled for choice in the Mac world. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. So I think you're pretty much flat wrong that low-end PCs don't translate into third party software sales.
With a ~40% profit margin and more cash in the bank than most governments, Apple could compete on price if they wanted to. Like I said earlier, and have said many times before, I don't believe that Apple is particularly invested in the Mac these days. Apple is clearly much more enthusiastic about iOS than macOS. If Apple really wanted to grow Mac marketshare, there are many approaches it could take. Instead, the Mac withers on the vine, with the occasional underwhelming, and increasingly overpriced, update for each model.
Same old crud from you people. Ignore the margins Microsoft makes and hammer Apple for the margins they make. Ignore the reality that Microsoft uses clone makers to generate its cheap ash hardware and Apple uses its software to give great advantage to Apple product owners. Never admit that Microsoft can’t even begin to accomplish the integration between hardware and software that Apple does. Ignore the reality that Apple products last longer and perform better for longer than most PC products.
I could go on but you’re not worth the effort.
If you compare a Mac to a cheap notebook /PC, I could agree. But if you compare devices in the same price range, as ThinkPads, HP Z Workstations and other high end devices, you'll see they are as good, or even better than what Apple offers.
If the Mac Pro dies I will probably replace it with a workstation grade PC unless Apple ships a decent headless desktop that can be properly maintained. I do not want a glued shut iMac, Tim.
There are very few applications that actually make use of the iPad Pro's capabilities, and that might not change for quite a while.
Hololens, the leading AR system, is just one example of Microsoft raising the bar on hardware and software integration.
Butterfly keyboard says "what?"... Seriously, most PC products that cost as much (or in many cases quite a bit less) as an Apple product will probably last you just as long if not longer. A lot of them are also easily serviceable and have more powerful hardware.
iOS and iPhone are still Apple's bread and butter. Services, and potentially new markets, look to play a key role moving forward.
I would assume their crap is overpriced, so maybe you’re right.
"Mac marketshare has more or less climbed as high as it's going to climb as long as Apple stays the course." Are you implying that Apple can change the course if they do something else? You're trashing them for making the wrong decisions about the Mac for over 30 years but you say they turn things around and make Windows obsolete? No, Windows won, that's it. Businesses are not going to throw away their Windows machines because Apple suddenly licensed MacOS (again) to cheap PC manufacturers. Again, Windows won – permanently!
Yes, Apple cares more about iOS than MacOS. My Google Analytics shows that over 90% of my visitors to my sites are on mobile. There's one reason that explains things. If the Mac desktop is "withering," so is the rest of the PC desktop. One day, desktop will evolutionize into something else, and this Mac vs. PC "debate" will be more worthless and tiring than ever.
Oh, about these Apple fanboys. If I had a business, where my customers fanboys, zealots, ideologues, or whatever, who would buy no matter what, who would evangelize my brand no matter what, let me tell you something, the stock price of my public company would be astronomical. Wait! I know such of a company, the stock symbol is...!
B@llocks. I still have a 2006 black MacBook that I use for various things, such as ripping due to the inbuilt drive. Previously it used to take a lot of punishment originally as my development machine and later for djing.
Whereas at work I doubt if any of out comkany Lenovo, Microsoft, etc laptops are more than 6 years old. And Lenovo’s are really cr@p with trackpads that are useless when brand new!
But, bottom user base like highschool and college students, small businesses,casual users is very large. Due to Apple's tight integration across products, this larger user base can easily influence with buying rest of Apple products to people they live and interact with. Apple don't want to loose this bottom user base to Windows. Remember when students join work, professional life, they carry Apple products into it and start influencing purchases of higher end products. People who uses MAC products more likely buy iPhone and other Apple products.