Apple's Mac continues to grow in supply-constrained PC market

AppleInsider

Apple shipped an estimated 7.82 million Mac units during the third calendar quarter of 2021, up 14.4% year-over-year, according to new PC market data.

Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

The Cupertino tech giant came in fourth among the top global PC makers, behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell in that order. Apple accounted for 9.3% of the market in the third quarter, which corresponds to the company's fourth fiscal quarter, according to new data from research firm Canalys.

Apple's growth clocked in among the best during the period, behind only Dell's 26.7% annual growth. HP actually lost market share during the quarter, and Lenovo grew 2.5% year-over-year.

The pandemic-era boom in the PC market may be coming to an end, spurred largely by supply constraints, Canalys reports. The global PC market grew by 5% in Q3 and hit a total of 84.1 million shipments. That's down from the double-digit growth that the PC market saw for five straight quarters.

"Disruption to the global supply chain and logistics network remains the key inhibitor of higher growth in the PC market. More than a year on from the onset of the pandemic, manufacturing continues to be hindered by lockdowns and other COVID-19 related restrictions, particularly in Asia," said Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt. "This has been compounded by a massive slowdown in global transportation with freight prices and delay times skyrocketing as a number of industries compete to meet unfulfilled demand."

The analyst says that the shortfall in PC supply will last "well into 2022." Additionally, the holiday season could see a significant portion of unmet orders.

"Vendors able to manage this period of operational upheaval by diversifying production and distribution and having better visibility of orders to prioritize device allocation will be equipped to ride out the storm," Dutt wrote.

Apple is set to announce its own quarterly earnings results on Oct. 28, though the company no longer reports individual unit sales. The company is also largely expected to debut new Mac models by the end of 2021, including Apple Silicon-based MacBook Pro devices.

Read on AppleInsider

tht

I'm really curious where all these Macs are going and what people are using them for. The vast majority is probably web applications with lots of MS Office (students, home user et al). Some significant chunk are using them in STEM fields (python, MS Office), and probably a good chunk for web development and Apple platform app development. These new machines are also riding a new market of "work from home", whose penetration will surely finish sooner or later.

Then, what is the current Apple Silicon versus Intel split? Probably 2 Apple Silicon Macs to 1 Intel or so per usual, if the ASP is around $1300.

Apple still needs a platform service that only they provide on Macs, or do the best job on Macs, as a way to encourage more sales, and to give them a chance for 15% marketshare. Don't know what this app or service could be, but they will need it to grow ever more. Then, there would be a better chance for them to fill holes in the current Mac lineup. A MBA14 or MBA15 model is needed. They still should have a modular headless box for around $1500.

montrosemacs

Slightly OT, but crikey, trying to be patient, but where in the heck are those new M1x 14" and 16" Macbook Pros?? Were all the rumors wrong??

marvin

montrosemacs said:

Slightly OT, but crikey, trying to be patient, but where in the heck are those new M1x 14" and 16" Macbook Pros?? Were all the rumors wrong??

It'll be 2 years next month since the last major 16" MBP update. The Mac event last year was in November, the suggestions of an October event are just guesswork based on the fact that people are desperate for an update and Apple has had events in October before.

They've never had an event later than November for product launches and that makes sense to avoid issues over Christmas so I'd expect 9th November at the latest. It could be announced tomorrow for next week. There's only really 4 dates left - 19th, 26th October, 2nd, 9th November.

These Macs make up a smaller fraction of the Mac userbase. The Air and 13" Pro probably account for 60% of units and the 21" iMac around 15% so with the M1 they covered around 75% of Mac users.
The 27" iMac and Mac Pro users wouldn't benefit much from Apple Silicon, it would be mostly a side-step performance-wise. Prices can come down in higher-end models.

The 16" MBPs are likely around 15-20% of units and are most in need of the update but it's understandable why they are lower priority. It would have been good if they'd announced the new chip at WWDC because then people would at least have been able to talk about it and what it was capable of.

They might refresh the M1 chip too as they can get similar gains for M1 as A15 vs A14.

filemakerfeller

tht said:

I'm really curious where all these Macs are going and what people are using them for. The vast majority is probably web applications with lots of MS Office (students, home user et al). Some significant chunk are using them in STEM fields (python, MS Office), and probably a good chunk for web development and Apple platform app development. These new machines are also riding a new market of "work from home", whose penetration will surely finish sooner or later.

Then, what is the current Apple Silicon versus Intel split? Probably 2 Apple Silicon Macs to 1 Intel or so per usual, if the ASP is around $1300.

Apple still needs a platform service that only they provide on Macs, or do the best job on Macs, as a way to encourage more sales, and to give them a chance for 15% marketshare. Don't know what this app or service could be, but they will need it to grow ever more. Then, there would be a better chance for them to fill holes in the current Mac lineup. A MBA14 or MBA15 model is needed. They still should have a modular headless box for around $1500.

I'm not so sure - I think the best move to drive growth will be to win over corporate IT departments, who currently view Macs as more difficult to administer (spoiler: they are indeed harder to manage centrally) and only support them because they are forced to. It's a difficult needle to thread, especially in industries where there are legal requirements for data management and where IT is viewed as a cost centre and not a source of improved efficiency. But IBM keep touting the reduced management costs of their Apple gear, so maybe there's hope.

davesnothere

Marvin said:

They've never had an event later than November for product launches and that makes sense to avoid issues over Christmas so I'd expect 9th November at the latest. It could be announced tomorrow for next week. There's only really 4 dates left - 19th, 26th October, 2nd, 9th November.

Once, since Steve's return, Apple released an ipod (4th or 5th I believe) on Thanksgiving weekend. They've never announced anything past the first week of November other than speed bumps since then.

There were no accessories for grandma to buy, new ipods weren't protected, and the case manufacturers and Apple missed out on sales. Everyone was pissed. It used to take a minimum of 4 weeks to get 3rd party accessories after an announcement.

edited October 2021

tht

FileMakerFeller said:

tht said:

I'm really curious where all these Macs are going and what people are using them for. The vast majority is probably web applications with lots of MS Office (students, home user et al). Some significant chunk are using them in STEM fields (python, MS Office), and probably a good chunk for web development and Apple platform app development. These new machines are also riding a new market of "work from home", whose penetration will surely finish sooner or later.

Then, what is the current Apple Silicon versus Intel split? Probably 2 Apple Silicon Macs to 1 Intel or so per usual, if the ASP is around $1300.

Apple still needs a platform service that only they provide on Macs, or do the best job on Macs, as a way to encourage more sales, and to give them a chance for 15% marketshare. Don't know what this app or service could be, but they will need it to grow ever more. Then, there would be a better chance for them to fill holes in the current Mac lineup. A MBA14 or MBA15 model is needed. They still should have a modular headless box for around $1500.

I'm not so sure - I think the best move to drive growth will be to win over corporate IT departments, who currently view Macs as more difficult to administer (spoiler: they are indeed harder to manage centrally) and only support them because they are forced to. It's a difficult needle to thread, especially in industries where there are legal requirements for data management and where IT is viewed as a cost centre and not a source of improved efficiency. But IBM keep touting the reduced management costs of their Apple gear, so maybe there's hope.

Yes, I lived through the Mac purge in the 90s and now the Mac renaissance in the 10s. One of the best deals Apple ever made was to get MS to continue development of Office for Mac. If it wasn't for that, Apple would be dead imo. Today, there are Enterprise device management tools for Macs, so a mixed environment is fine and more accepted.

I do think Apple needs an $800 laptop and enable more remote device management features to further penetrate big corporate IT. A MBA13 with an A15 would make for a great laptop for a rather wide spectrum of users. They also need an MBA15 too, with a couple of SoC options. They need to get MS to enable feature parity between Office for PC and Mac, including adding Access, Project and Visio into suite. Though perhaps Office365 takes care of all that, eventually. Still a lot of features missing in the web versions.

Apple also have to quadruple down on Arcade and become game publisher to at least grab a slice of the gaming PC market. As as the answer to what you should be to play games is get a PC or a console, there is inherent risk to Apple. There's a reason MS started XBox, bought Minecraft, and bought a bunch of game studios.

doggone

Back in the early 2000’s Apple was barely selling a million Macs a year. Whilst the Mac is no longer the biggest part of apple’s portfolio, it is still an impressive gain over the last 20 years. 

timmillea

Marvin said:

The 27" iMac and Mac Pro users wouldn't benefit much from Apple Silicon, it would be mostly a side-step performance-wise. Prices can come down in higher-end models.

You clearly have not been following the rumours of the next M SoC (M1X, M2 etc.). Knowing how Apple works, you can be assured of 1) a huge performance leap like-for-like and 2) a small price increase overall. Apple do not need to bring down the prices of their Pro Macs. If you want the absolute best at any price, as many do, their pricing looks like an absolute steal. 

For example, Apple's 32' XDR Display at $5,000 + $1,000 for the stand and another $1,000 for anti-reflective glass seems a lot to we mere mortals but the alternative in pro circles offering a similar level of reference quality is $40,000. We benefit from Apple producing the very best products and selling them at prices that the masses can (just) afford whether or not they appreciate them or can use them to their fullest capabilities. 

The new 16" Mac Pro is what top film directors will be using on set. They want the absolute best and the cost Apple is likely to ask for it is totally insignificant in the overall scheme of things. Similarly for the forthcoming Apple silicon Mac Pro. It will be a screecher and the fact that it will cost less than a house is a benefit to the rest of us. 

tht

doggone said:

Back in the early 2000’s Apple was barely selling a million Macs a year. Whilst the Mac is no longer the biggest part of apple’s portfolio, it is still an impressive gain over the last 20 years. 

It wasn't that bad. Their lowest year was about 2.8m Mac units in 1997. They had a nice bump for the Y2K replacement cycle, than was hovering around 3.5m to 4m units until 2005 when the confluence of iPod, iTunes, Apple Store service, and ActiveX plugin malware finally got people to switch and buy more Macs. The pandemic is providing them a nice bump to about 20m to 25m units for the last 4 quarters of so.

How they maintain this momentum is a big question. Apple Silicon is nice, but if they don't lower prices, it will be hard to increase sales. They need to offer machines for more niches. Apple has zero play in the laboratory PC business. They need to have LabView and at least a good suite of software lab testing. Apple has zero play in the hospital PC business, or similar corporate company. Lots of users have Macs on desks, but every single computer in a hospital room or cart or hallway is a PC. Most of these are just running a web browser. And as said, even in the consumer PC market (for individuals), their wheelhouse, they have holes in their lineup.