Mac shipments grow slightly, but Apple's PC market share shrinks [u]
Apple's market share in the global PC market shrunk slightly in the third quarter of 2019 compared with last year, according to Canalys, despite the company seeing a year-on-year increase in Mac and MacBook shipments.
The global PC market saw considerable year-on-year growth, with shipments increasing 4.7% to 70.9 million units in the third quarter of 2019. Canalys claims this is the best performance for the market since the first quarter of 2012, where shipments grew 5.4%.
Despite the growth, the percentage improvement mostly stems from other PC vendors, rather than Apple. Canalys reckons Apple shipped 5.376 million Macs and MacBooks in the third quarter, a rise of 1.5% from the 5.299 million it believes Apple shipped in the third quarter of 2019.
However, due to the 4.7% growth of the market as a whole, despite Apple's increase, its market share is actually down, from 7.8% to 7.6%.
Other vendors on the list saw both unit and market share growth over the period for the most part, with top-performing Lenovo seeing 7.2% growth in shipments to 17.3 million and acquiring 24.4% of the market. Following behind is HP with 16.7 million units, 8.5% growth, and a 23.6% market share, but while Dell saw 5.2% year-on-year shipment growth of 12 million units, its market share remains static at 17%.
In the United States, factors like upgrades to Windows 10 and seasonal inventory stocking for the holidays helped increase shipments, though for some volatile regions, companies had to take "precautionary measures" to hedge against disruption. One example is the tariffs applied by the US against Chinese imports, heavily affecting the market and causing vendors to increase production orders ahead of the December 15 deadline.
For Apple specifically, shipments were up 3.0% year-on-year in the United States, allowing it and HP to increase faster than the market average. However, the uncertainty of Brexit in Europe restricted demand, and Apple was the only vendor in the top five to not see shipment growth for the region.
While Apple isn't leading the market in terms of shipments, it is however in first place when it comes to consumer satisfaction in the United States. ACSI rankings put Apple in the top position for the second year in a row, including for notebook and tablet segments, but was edged out by Samsung for desktops.
It isn't clear how accurate the figures are. Apple doesn't report sales data per unit anymore, making direct comparisons, and quarter-to-quarter corrections impossible. When Apple still reported numbers, Canalys numbers -- and every other analysts' -- were often well off the mark.
Update: Market research firms Gartner and IDC also released their latest numbers on Thursday. According to Gartner, Mac shipments dropped 3.7% year-over-year to 5.1 million, a figure representing 7.5% of the market. The firm estimates the overall PC market grew 1.1% over quarter three.
Source: Gartner
IDC's numbers show Mac at 5 million shipments for the quarter, down 6.1% on the year. Apple managed a 7.1% marketshare as overall growth was estimated at 3%.
The global PC market saw considerable year-on-year growth, with shipments increasing 4.7% to 70.9 million units in the third quarter of 2019. Canalys claims this is the best performance for the market since the first quarter of 2012, where shipments grew 5.4%.
Despite the growth, the percentage improvement mostly stems from other PC vendors, rather than Apple. Canalys reckons Apple shipped 5.376 million Macs and MacBooks in the third quarter, a rise of 1.5% from the 5.299 million it believes Apple shipped in the third quarter of 2019.
However, due to the 4.7% growth of the market as a whole, despite Apple's increase, its market share is actually down, from 7.8% to 7.6%.
Other vendors on the list saw both unit and market share growth over the period for the most part, with top-performing Lenovo seeing 7.2% growth in shipments to 17.3 million and acquiring 24.4% of the market. Following behind is HP with 16.7 million units, 8.5% growth, and a 23.6% market share, but while Dell saw 5.2% year-on-year shipment growth of 12 million units, its market share remains static at 17%.
In the United States, factors like upgrades to Windows 10 and seasonal inventory stocking for the holidays helped increase shipments, though for some volatile regions, companies had to take "precautionary measures" to hedge against disruption. One example is the tariffs applied by the US against Chinese imports, heavily affecting the market and causing vendors to increase production orders ahead of the December 15 deadline.
For Apple specifically, shipments were up 3.0% year-on-year in the United States, allowing it and HP to increase faster than the market average. However, the uncertainty of Brexit in Europe restricted demand, and Apple was the only vendor in the top five to not see shipment growth for the region.
While Apple isn't leading the market in terms of shipments, it is however in first place when it comes to consumer satisfaction in the United States. ACSI rankings put Apple in the top position for the second year in a row, including for notebook and tablet segments, but was edged out by Samsung for desktops.
It isn't clear how accurate the figures are. Apple doesn't report sales data per unit anymore, making direct comparisons, and quarter-to-quarter corrections impossible. When Apple still reported numbers, Canalys numbers -- and every other analysts' -- were often well off the mark.
Update: Market research firms Gartner and IDC also released their latest numbers on Thursday. According to Gartner, Mac shipments dropped 3.7% year-over-year to 5.1 million, a figure representing 7.5% of the market. The firm estimates the overall PC market grew 1.1% over quarter three.
Source: Gartner
IDC's numbers show Mac at 5 million shipments for the quarter, down 6.1% on the year. Apple managed a 7.1% marketshare as overall growth was estimated at 3%.
Comments
I get that Samsung is ahead of Apple in dishwashers, but how can Samsung be ahead in a category they don't have any products in?
Personally, even at an assumed $4k+ price point for my needs and with my current MBP still being under AC+ coverage, it'll be hard for me not to jump at this if they go back to a scissor keyboard mechanism.
It's the exact same way Apple came out ahead in the notebook and tablet section.
Wait? Do you realize your quote implies that the way to increase your sales is to make horrendous design blunders? Cuz Apple's sales increased, not decreased. Their market share went down, which was a consequence of their competitors also increasing sales but at a higher rate.
Is annual macOS churn for new hardware as brutal as Macworld was for product pipelines, eventually ended by SJ recognizing it was a big (just one of many) 'bag of hurt'...?
Even the most elemental mouse was 'upgraded' to 'onboard' proprietary batteries and the thing can't be used while it is being charged. Perhaps someone can explain how this (design or logic) change even remotely benefits customers...?
The loss of headphone jack on iPhone now begs an octopus of adapter dongle mess to use my 'better than apple' wired headphones and wall adapter. Wired headphones also never lose connectivity, require charging or require replacement (new proprietary batteries) every few years. How 'sustainable' is that...?
Have macs gotten faster? Yes remarkably so (especially graphics) and yet we have a mini that now only has integrated graphics - try the eGPU reviews to understand why this is a non-starter.
We've lost so many basic useful features (target display, flex vesa mount for iMac, among others) - less is not more for this lifetime business user and regrettably increasingly reticent customer...
(probably people looking at the logo in their monitor).
- Figure it out already: normals don't care about upgrading storage. I'm even a techie, have built countless machines, and I have zero interest in upgrading storage on any iMac. It's not worth the hassle, and DIY tinkering isn't why I bought a Mac. Few do, which is why no one cares about this issue.
- I've had both the Magic Mouse w/ AAs and the new one w/ Lightning charging. The new one is way, way better. Why? Because I already have a Lightning charing cable coming out of my Mac to charge my iPhone, or my iPad, or my AirPods, or my Magic Keyboard, or my TouchPad. Add now my Mouse. It's a no-brainer.
- Unlike you, I have and use the Mouse, and know first-hand that the OCD complaint by web commenters is meaningless. At no point would I ever, or do I need to, use the Mouse while charging it. Why? Because it now gets about a month of use. Afterward my Mac pushes a notification reminding me to charge it when I'm done for the day. And if I still managed to ignore that, I plug it in for a minute, as I pee or make a coffee or get water, and guess what? All day battery again. Oops. Are you actually saying if you somehow managed to not charge for a month, and ignored the warning, that you don't have 60 seconds to go pee?
- The iPhone has a headphone jack. A nice digital one. The loss of the legacy analog one means dick to 99% of the population, because most people use the headphones that come in the box. Additionally, I use bluetooth headphones (AirPods) which are amazingly awesome. At no point have I ever need any nonsense about dongles. Use the fucking adapter if you're so in love with your mini-phono headphones, nobody's stopping ya.
You dudes try so hard. Please your hearts.
I can't afford to lose the capability of the three 32 bit apps in my, present iMac.
Guess I'm just one of the million iMac users that "don't count," as we should have gotten rid of those pesky 32 bit apps.
I've always leaned towards the consumer line over the more expensive Pro line and the portable/mobile over the heavy.
I love my 2017 rose gold MacBook. It is the quintessential example of Job's ideal. Light, thin, beautiful, and just a joy to own. I don't want seven cables attached to my MacBook.
I still am rocking a rose gold Se for the same reasons I like the MacBook. (The new iPhones sure are heavy!)
I have an iPad mini 2...but hardly use it at all.
AppleTV/iTunes is the only way I watch TV. I don't go to Movies b/c people eat like donkeys!
I will not have any MicroSoft, Google, FaceBook offal on any of my devices.
I use DuckDuckGo...and very soon will be using a good VPN.
I avoid all third-party software.
Anyway...best regards.
P.S. My AirPods are the most brilliant device Apple has done since the 2017 MacBook!
That said, I also realize that moving forward requires sacrifices. Look how crappy Windows has historically been. Much of that is because of Microsoft's need to continue compatibility with old apps to keep their corporate customers pleased. I'm glad Apple is moving forward, even though it's going to cause me some pain.