PC market got hammered in holiday season, but Apple didn't

AppleInsider

Last quarter, worldwide sales for all PCs manufacturers were down almost 30% versus the 2021 holiday quarter -- but Apple's fell only 2.1% in a quarter without any new Macs.

IDC has previously had mixed success with reporting Mac shipments, and iPhone sales, but its latest Tracker report is based on data from global sales of computers.

According to its figures, overall shipments for what it describes as "traditional PCs" in the holiday quarter of 2022 were down 28.1% at 67.2 million. Despite that, the annual figure for 2022 was still above pre-pandemic levels at 292.3 million PCs.

The largest declines were for Dell on 37.2% and HP on 29%. Dell shipped 21.6 million PCs, compared to 15.5 million year-over-year, while HP's shipments dropped to 13.2 million from 18.6 million.

Apple declined 2.1%, having shipped 7.5 million Macs in the fourth calendar quarter of 2022 compared to an very close 7.7 million in the same time period in 2021. Apple had no new fall-quarter Mac release in 2022, for the first time in years.

The industry is still in the throes of a post-pandemic decline, though, which as seen companies struggling to get users to upgrade.

"Average selling prices (ASPs) across many channels also fell as excess channel inventory over the course of the past few months triggered discounting in an effort to spur demand," Jitesh Ubrani, IDC Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers research manager, wrote. "Despite these efforts, inventory management of finished PCs as well as components will remain a key issue in the coming quarters and has the potential to further affect ASPs."

"Consecutive quarters of declines clearly paint a gloomy picture of the PC market, but this is really all about perception," wrote Ryan Reith, vice president of the same IDC group. "2021 was near historic levels for PC shipments, so any comparison is going to be distorted."

Worldwide computer sales in the PC category

"There's no question when we look back at this time that the rise and fall of the PC market will be one for the record books, but plenty of opportunity still lies ahead," continued Reith. "We firmly believe the market has the potential to recover in 2024 and we also see pockets of opportunity throughout the remainder of 2023."

IDC cites the approaching end of support for Windows 10 as a motivator for business to upgrade. That has not motivated businesses much in the past, plus Microsoft will support that OS until October 2025.

The market intelligence firm believes there is also "a building refresh cycle," though again for businesses, as consumer buying "remains a wildcard for 2023 and beyond."

Apple hasn't reported sales volumes in nearly a decade. It's not entirely clear how IDC sources its data.

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red oak

Apple reported Mac sales unit volume up until the end of fiscal year 2018.   Four years ago.   FYI 

blastdoor

I bought an M2 MacBook Air in Q4 2022, highest end spec. It's my first ASi Mac. It's *fantastic*. 

The only tradeoff with the MBA is that the processor throttles after being under full load for a while, but that's just the laws of physics. I prefer the fanless design and am willing t to accept the occasional performance penalty (which, thanks to Apple's superior QoS, is not perceptible from a UI point of view). 

This really may be the most perfect laptop ever made. 

lkrupp

Yes, the same IDC that once predicted with certainty that Windows Mobile phones would overtake the iPhone in two years.

tht

When Gartner and Strategy Analytics announce their number we will surely cover the spread.

dewme

I wonder if more corporate PC users are holding off on purchasing personal PCs because many of them are now working from home using company issued PCs? These corporate PCs, with Dell and HP being major sellers of these things, are perfectly fine for most personal productivity uses, but typically not gaming. The age old question of “Why buy the cow when you’re getting the milk for free?” may be behind some of this decline. I don’t know but I would not be surprised if this dynamic is somewhere in the mix.

tht

dewme said:

I wonder if more corporate PC users are holding off on purchasing personal PCs because many of them are now working from home using company issued PCs? These corporate PCs, with Dell and HP being major sellers of these things, are perfectly fine for most personal productivity uses, but typically not gaming. The age old question of “Why buy the cow when you’re getting the milk for free?” may be behind some of this decline. I don’t know but I would not be surprised if this dynamic is somewhere in the mix.

Post pandemic lull. The PC sales boom from pandemic induced WFH sales in 2020, 2021 and 2022 has to eventually get saturated and then go bust. So, 2H 2022 to maybe 2H 2023 will mostly be a down time and the buying cycle may pick up again next year or 2H 2023. For x86 PCs since they have 90% marketshare that is.

Apple theoretically has that 90% to eat into if they have the correct perf/$ and software support, and theoretically could be shielded from these boom-bust cycles. But. Apple isn't trying that hard. They are doing their usual getting the most money per unit as they can. If you don't make profit, you don't have a business, no? Feels like there must be a Ferengi rule of acquisition there.

danox

blastdoor said:

I bought an M2 MacBook Air in Q4 2022, highest end spec. It's my first ASi Mac. It's *fantastic*. 

The only tradeoff with the MBA is that the processor throttles after being under full load for a while, but that's just the laws of physics. I prefer the fanless design and am willing t to accept the occasional performance penalty (which, thanks to Apple's superior QoS, is not perceptible from a UI point of view). 

This really may be the most perfect laptop ever made. 

Congratulations, I have a 2011 27 inch iMac and I’m dying for a larger screen iMac with the new silicon chips. I don’t care if it’s an M1 or M2 chip, the form factor is the most important part, the performance is there with either chip for most users.

tht

danox said:

blastdoor said:

I bought an M2 MacBook Air in Q4 2022, highest end spec. It's my first ASi Mac. It's *fantastic*. 

The only tradeoff with the MBA is that the processor throttles after being under full load for a while, but that's just the laws of physics. I prefer the fanless design and am willing t to accept the occasional performance penalty (which, thanks to Apple's superior QoS, is not perceptible from a UI point of view). 

This really may be the most perfect laptop ever made. 

Congratulations, I have a 2011 27 inch iMac and I’m dying for a larger screen iMac with the new silicon chips. I don’t care if it’s an M1 or M2 chip, the form factor is the most important part, the performance is there with either chip for most users.

Your best bet is probably an M1 or M2 Mac mini, preferably a M2 model with 24 GB RAM, and your choice of 4k to 6k 30+ inch monitors. There are accessories that have the same footprint as the Mac mini making it a nice and convenient stack. There may be some nice miniLED or IPS black monitors coming this summer. If you are keeping the machine for 10+ years, max out the RAM.

My 2013 iMac 27 still going alright.