Mac shipments continue to outpace overall PC sales trends

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited July 2018
New estimates from market research firm Gartner suggest Apple's Mac business grew in the second quarter of 2018, contributing to a year-over-year upturn in the embattled PC market, its first in six years.

PC Shipments


According to Gartner, Apple shipped 4.4 million Mac units during the three-month period ending in June, enough to capture 7.1 percent of the worldwide PC market. The figure is up 3 percent from the same time last year, putting Apple in fourth place among the world's top PC vendors.

Industry giants Lenovo and HP continue to duke it out at the top, with Lenovo taking top honors this quarter thanks in part to a new joint venture with Fujitsu. The Chinese company shipped 13.6 million units for a 21.9 percent share of the market, up a segment-leading 10.5 percent from 2017.

Second place HP likewise saw gains this quarter with an identical 21.9 percent marketshare on just under 13.6 million units shipped. Compared to last year, when it was in the top spot, HP grew its PC business by 6.1 percent.

Dell also turned in a strong performance with shipments of 10.5 million units, growing its share of the market from 15.6 percent in 2017 to 16.8 percent in the trailing quarter.

Acer rounded out the top five with 4 million shipments for 6.4 percent of the market, up 3.1 percent year-over-year.

Overall, the PC market managed a 1.4 percent uptick, bucking a six-year downward spiral on the back of worldwide growth, suggesting the market is beginning to stabilize. Gartner, however, warns the turnaround is not enough to place the industry into recovery territory.

"PC shipment growth in the second quarter of 2018 was driven by demand in the business market, which was offset by declining shipments in the consumer segment," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "In the consumer space, the fundamental market structure, due to changes on PC user behavior, still remains, and continues to impact market growth. Consumers are using their smartphones for even more daily tasks, such as checking social media, calendaring, banking and shopping, which is reducing the need for a consumer PC."

As for the U.S. market, Apple maintained its spot in fourth place with 1.8 million shipments, up 1.7 percent year-over-year. HP and Dell led domestic sales, though the former saw a slight 0.6 percent contraction during the quarter. Lenovo came in third with 14 percent of the U.S. market, while Acer finished in fifth with a 2.7 percent marketshare.

Today's estimates arrive on the heels of Apple's announcement of a hotly anticipated MacBook Pro hardware refresh. The company's latest professional-level laptops feature up to six-core processors Intel processors, up to 32GB of RAM, new TrueTone displays and more.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,152member
    I find it hard to believe Mac shipments grew 3 percent, although given that they are seen less and less in comparison to dells and in particular, many more HP spectres (frigging HP!) would  be my anecdotal support for the article.  MS surface seems to be doing even less well than macs, and that would be from a low base.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 12
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    I really would love to see an historic chart showing installed base of Mac versus the various PC brands.  Most outsell Apple each quarter, but like Volvos, Macs last a long time. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 12
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,152member
    Good point. 
    although updating macs is so rare you have to keep them for a long time.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 12
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,717member
    Agreed.  I passed my mid-2010 MBP on to my inlaws when I got the 2015 model and it's still going strong for them.  I still miss that 17" display.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 12
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    auxio said:
    Agreed.  I passed my mid-2010 MBP on to my inlaws when I got the 2015 model and it's still going strong for them.  I still miss that 17" display.
    I can't fathom why no 17" new Mac Book Pro.  These days it wouldn't have to weigh a ton like the ones do (I know I still have one in my Mac collection.)
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 12
    I really would love to see an historic chart showing installed base of Mac versus the various PC brands.  Most outsell Apple each quarter, but like Volvos, Macs last a long time. 
    I know IDC used to do an installed base by brand tracker. You could write and ask them for it. Or it wouldn't be that difficult to do it yourself once you make a few assumptions about retirement rates, which you might be able to get from surveys.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    pmb01pmb01 Posts: 25member
    Completely out of nowhere!
    MacPro said:
    auxio said:
    Agreed.  I passed my mid-2010 MBP on to my inlaws when I got the 2015 model and it's still going strong for them.  I still miss that 17" display.
    I can't fathom why no 17" new Mac Book Pro.  These days it wouldn't have to weigh a ton like the ones do (I know I still have one in my Mac collection.)
    Because the 17" was never a big seller. In its last year sold by Apple, it sold less than every other Mac.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 12
    sphericspheric Posts: 2,544member
    MacPro said:
    auxio said:
    Agreed.  I passed my mid-2010 MBP on to my inlaws when I got the 2015 model and it's still going strong for them.  I still miss that 17" display.
    I can't fathom why no 17" new Mac Book Pro.  These days it wouldn't have to weigh a ton like the ones do (I know I still have one in my Mac collection.)
    I was in Mac sales for eight years until 2012. I think I only ever sold a single 17" MacBook Pro for the size. Literally every other customer (and they weren't many) bought it for the resolution and grudgingly dealt with the bulkiness of it.

    Which is why they were discontinued the second the retina 15" came out.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 12
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    I really would love to see an historic chart showing installed base of Mac versus the various PC brands.  Most outsell Apple each quarter, but like Volvos, Macs last a long time. 
    I'd like to see some actual in-use percentages (maybe that's what you mean by installed base). These market-share figures always over-represent Windows (and Android) because so many of the latter end up as point-of-sale, machine control, 'terminals'... or in the case of Android, in shoe-boxes or non-smart-phone use.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 12
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    spheric said:
    …grudgingly dealt with the bulkiness of it.
    The MacBook Pro isn’t bulky anymore. What reason is there not to have one? Why shouldn’t we want more screen space? “Resolution”? Were the people buying these retina models turning off the retina feature? Because it was the same resolution as before: 1440x900 (effective).
    edited July 2018 watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 12
    blah64blah64 Posts: 993member
    spheric said:
    MacPro said:
    auxio said:
    Agreed.  I passed my mid-2010 MBP on to my inlaws when I got the 2015 model and it's still going strong for them.  I still miss that 17" display.
    I can't fathom why no 17" new Mac Book Pro.  These days it wouldn't have to weigh a ton like the ones do (I know I still have one in my Mac collection.)
    I was in Mac sales for eight years until 2012. I think I only ever sold a single 17" MacBook Pro for the size. Literally every other customer (and they weren't many) bought it for the resolution and grudgingly dealt with the bulkiness of it.

    Which is why they were discontinued the second the retina 15" came out.

    Your reasoning is somewhat questionable.

    Especially as people age, there is a high correlation between physical screen size and usable resolution.  This is only not true when dpi is particularly low.

    I'm probably not in the target audience for a 17" machine in any case, but I don't care how many pixels a new 15" display has, it's not going to suit me (much) better than my current 1680x1050 screen -- at that physical size.  If I want/need more resolution, it's going to require a bigger screen.
    edited July 2018
  • Reply 12 of 12
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    blah64 said:
    Especially as people age, there is a high correlation between physical screen size and usable resolution.  This is only not true when dpi is particularly low.

    I'm probably not in the target audience for a 17" machine in any case, but I don't care how many pixels a new 15" display has, it's not going to suit me (much) better than my current 1680x1050 screen -- at that physical size.  If I want/need more resolution, it's going to require a bigger screen.
    Exactly. It's more about screen real-estate, and Retina is about dpi... two very different things unless you have eagle eyes and use a utility like QuickRes.
    That said, I'd imagine the market for laptop users who need a big screen (and then, not really all that big) while out and about is pretty small.

    Even in my years of doing 3D and CAD (which needs lots of screen space), I never bought one of the 17" laptops. I just tried really, really hard to always be connected to external monitors, and only have to do minor edits while out and about (yes, I did have to do some CAD work out in the manufacturing plant at times... but it wasn't worth the bulk of the 17" to me).
Sign In or Register to comment.