Apple's Mac gained market share in growing PC market

AppleInsider

Apple Mac revenues rose 50% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2020 as global PC unit shipments increased 18%, driven largely by continued work-from-home and remote learning trends.

Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

In a note to investors seen by AppleInsider, Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall writes that Apple's Mac revenues rose 50% year-over-year. The Cupertino tech giant is also likely to see continued gains as users adopt M1-equipped Macs for their performance upgrades.

Taking a look at the broader market, Hall notes that PC makers shipped a combined 81.8 million units in the third quarter. That beats Goldman Sachs' estimates by 11%. Those numbers also represent an 18% year-over-year increase.

Consumer PC units rose 33% year-over-year, while commercial sales clocked in at a 6% increase. Both segments beat Goldman Sachs expectations.

The average selling price of the PC market came in at $764, an increase of 3% from the previous year. Total revenue was $62.5 billion, beating Goldman Sachs forecast by 14%.

Hall expects the current PC market strength to "at least partially persist" into the fourth quarter of 2020, and possibly into the first quarter of 2021 as global coronavirus lockdowns continue.

Desktop units appeared to be doing worse compared to 2019, with an 18% decrease. Notebooks sales, on the other hand, are booming. Sales of laptop devices were 36% higher in the third quarter year-over-year, beating Goldman Sachs estimates by 16%.

Lenovo reclaimed the top spot in PC makers, while both Dell and HP lost share. Apple gained a bigger share of the market during the quarter.

The results mark 2020 as the second successive year of growth in the PC market, but Hall sees long-term trends as "flattish at best."

"While near-term demand indications are strong, we continue to be cautious on PC demand looking into FY'21 as COVID driven replacement acceleration begins to wane and comps get more difficult," the analyst writes.

Although the shift in disposable income trended away from travel and leisure to home-based spending, the analyst doesn't expect it to continue.

"We believe that this shift is likely to move in the other direction as vaccine deployment drives re-opening in 2021 and that this shift is likely, in turn, to put incremental pressure on PC demand by the middle of next year," Hall writes.

22july2013

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

canukstorm

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

The average person buying tech doesn't know anything about the processor in the laptop.  And they shouldn't have to.  But they do understand a laptop that runs cool, runs silent, that has long battery life, and performs well when running apps.

cloudguy

canukstorm said:

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

The average person buying tech doesn't anything about the processor in the laptop.  And they shouldn't have to.  But they do understand a laptop that runs cool, runs silent, that has long battery life, and performs well when running apps.

Cool, silent and long battery life hasn't driven laptop sales in the past. People who want those things generally buy iPads and other tablets. People who buy PCs have more of a "can it run my software" mentality. After that it diverges into two groups:

1) Can it run my software as fast as possible
2) Can it run my software as cheaply as possible

Virtually no one is spending 6 hours on the couch with a laptop in their ... lap. A smartphone or tablet? Definitely. A Chromebook (or Windows 2-in-1) that folds into a tent or thick tablet? Maybe. A MacBook Pro? Nah, that is going to be plugged in at a desk 80% of the time, especially when you are actually using it for work (which requires sitting down and concentrating your attention in the same spot for several hours). 

cloudguy

"The average selling price of the PC market came in at $764"

Considering that Apple had 8% market share in 3Q 2020 - if Gartner, IDC and Canalys are to be believed - will people now please stop claiming that Apple has 80% of the $1000 computer market? That stat is like 20 years old and was dubious even then. 

ppietra

cloudguy said:

canukstorm said:

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

The average person buying tech doesn't anything about the processor in the laptop.  And they shouldn't have to.  But they do understand a laptop that runs cool, runs silent, that has long battery life, and performs well when running apps.

Cool, silent and long battery life hasn't driven laptop sales in the past. People who want those things generally buy iPads and other tablets.

That was in the past when all those things meant that the laptop had bad performance. We now see a lot of people contemplating replacing their old top of the line MacBook Pro exactly because they can get longer battery life while running silent, cool and with identical performance.

razorpit

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

Average people don’t have a clue what’s on the inside.

SpamSandwich

canukstorm said:

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

The average person buying tech doesn't know anything about the processor in the laptop.  And they shouldn't have to.  But they do understand a laptop that runs cool, runs silent, that has long battery life, and performs well when running apps.

And these new M1 chips have earned only raves from those who are best suited to analyze their performance.

dewme

canukstorm said:

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

The average person buying tech doesn't know anything about the processor in the laptop.  And they shouldn't have to.  But they do understand a laptop that runs cool, runs silent, that has long battery life, and performs well when running apps.

So you're saying that all those "Intel Inside" stickers that have been slathered all over Windows PCs like graffiti are all for naught?

Actually, I agree, and especially so when it comes to Macs because they've never thrown internals guts-related stuff in consumers faces - and shouldn't. There are a class of buyers who are impressed by stickers and technobabble but I'd say that Mac users just want a great product that they enjoy using for a long time.

ppietra

dewme said:

canukstorm said:

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

The average person buying tech doesn't know anything about the processor in the laptop.  And they shouldn't have to.  But they do understand a laptop that runs cool, runs silent, that has long battery life, and performs well when running apps.

So you're saying that all those "Intel Inside" stickers that have been slathered all over Windows PCs like graffiti are all for naught?

Actually, I agree, and especially so when it comes to Macs because they've never thrown internals guts-related stuff in consumers faces - and shouldn't. There are a class of buyers who are impressed by stickers and technobabble but I'd say that Mac users just want a great product that they enjoy using for a long time.

AMD in the last few years has proven that a lot of people will buy Windows PCs without Intel stickers. Intel is no longer synonym for best, which means that people will be exposed to a lot of different advices for machines with other processors.

blastdoor

cloudguy said:
Cool, silent and long battery life hasn't driven laptop sales in the past. People who want those things generally buy iPads and other tablets. People who buy PCs have more of a "can it run my software" mentality. After that it diverges into two groups:

1) Can it run my software as fast as possible
2) Can it run my software as cheaply as possible

Virtually no one is spending 6 hours on the couch with a laptop in their ... lap. A smartphone or tablet? Definitely. A Chromebook (or Windows 2-in-1) that folds into a tent or thick tablet? Maybe. A MacBook Pro? Nah, that is going to be plugged in at a desk 80% of the time, especially when you are actually using it for work (which requires sitting down and concentrating your attention in the same spot for several hours). 

Only in the weird world of COVID could anybody argue that battery life doesn't matter in a laptop. If these were normal times, you'd be laughed off the Internet. In the COVID world, it's true that the couch is the primary mobile destination. Outside of COVID, though, there are a lot of folks who travel for work and need a laptop, not a tablet, to get their work done. Those folks absolutely care about battery life, they absolutely care about the temperature. They want all day battery life. 

blastdoor

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

Apple doesn't sell to average people. Their market skews higher income, higher education. 

commentzilla

These M1 Macs are awesome. They totally blow away the hot and noisy Intel models. The responsiveness is amazing. Over 10GB of swap data and it seems to have no effect.

They are selling like hotcakes. I expect to see a sharp rise in marketshare over the next 18-months, because there is no PC equivalent to the M1.

Beats

Good to see. I wanna see MacBooks completely obliterate the knockoffs from Sammy and other unoriginal fu**s.

22july2013

blastdoor said:

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

Apple doesn't sell to average people. Their market skews higher income, higher education. 

<--

DuhSesame

cloudguy said:

canukstorm said:

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

The average person buying tech doesn't anything about the processor in the laptop.  And they shouldn't have to.  But they do understand a laptop that runs cool, runs silent, that has long battery life, and performs well when running apps.

Cool, silent and long battery life hasn't driven laptop sales in the past. People who want those things generally buy iPads and other tablets. People who buy PCs have more of a "can it run my software" mentality. After that it diverges into two groups:

1) Can it run my software as fast as possible
2) Can it run my software as cheaply as possible

Virtually no one is spending 6 hours on the couch with a laptop in their ... lap. A smartphone or tablet? Definitely. A Chromebook (or Windows 2-in-1) that folds into a tent or thick tablet? Maybe. A MacBook Pro? Nah, that is going to be plugged in at a desk 80% of the time, especially when you are actually using it for work (which requires sitting down and concentrating your attention in the same spot for several hours). 

That’s a dumb argument from every level:

1). the M1 is faster than most laptop.
2). Their power efficiency makes a better form.
3). People don’t always want it plug it in.

These M1 aren’t i9s but mainstream devices, don’t expect every users only to use it as a desktop replacement.

In fact, it defeats the purpose to just use laptops as a portable desktop.

DuhSesame

Can’t say M1 is useless while simultaneously praise Tiger Lake’s “power efficiency” or you’re pretty anarchy to me.  I remembered that post.

In fact I think you ate the crow several times.

techconc

22july2013 said:

I would expect average people to be turned off by a non-Intel CPU, in the short term.

I don't know, anyone who can read just one of the many reviews understands Apple is upsetting the laptop market with the M1 based Macs.  I've already had several people who were not tech savvy at all ask me about the new M1 Macs because they heard they were "so much better".  The mainstream media has embraced the new M1 based Macs and have likewise endorsed them even for running Intel based apps under Rosetta.  Likewise, just the opposite is happening.  M1 based Macs are very popular and delivery dates fro some models have been pushed out to the end of January already.