Apple sees Mac sales dip, marketshare increase in Q4 PC industry estimates
Compounding problems stemming from soft iPhone sales, Apple may have seen Mac shipments decline in the December quarter, early research estimates indicated on Thursday.
Apple's unit shipments came in at 4.9 million, down from 5.1 million in the same quarter a year ago, according to Gartner data. That's a decline of 3.8 percent.
The company's share of the market rose marginally from 7.1 to 7.2 percent, a significant uptick given that the overall PC industry saw shipments fall from 71.7 million to 68.6 million units. Some of the toughest blows were suffered by Asus and Acer, which saw their shipments drop 10.7 percent and 18.3 percent, respectively.
Lenovo, however, saw shipments rise 5.9 percent to 16.6 million, making it the dominant computer vendor with a 24.2 percent marketshare. HP ranked second despite a 4.4 percent dip, while Dell rose 1.4 percent to 10.9 million, keeping it securely in third place. Apple claimed fourth.
Gartner reported that top rankings should remain the same for 2018 as a whole, with Lenovo at 58.5 million units, HP at 56.3 million, Dell at 41.9 million, and Apple at 18 million -- Apple's numbers are estimated to be down 5 percent versus 2017.
Under pressure from phones and tablets, the PC industry has been in decline for seven years, and is forecast to see a 1.3 percent dip once 2018 data is finalized. Apple has yet to announce its official December-quarter financials.
On Jan. 2, though, it shocked the tech industry and investors by saying it was expecting $84 billion in revenue instead of a previously forecast $89 billion to $93 billion. CEO Tim Cook linked the issue mostly to poor Chinese iPhone sales, but also blamed "foreign exchange headwinds," fewer carrier subsidies, "economic weakness in some emerging markets," and its discounted iPhone battery replacement program.
Apple is allegedly cutting March-quarter iPhone production by 10 percent.
Gartner's PC data can sometimes be dramatically inaccurate. It initially estimated that Apple sold 4.9 million Macs in calendar Q3, when in reality it managed about 5.3 million.
Apple's unit shipments came in at 4.9 million, down from 5.1 million in the same quarter a year ago, according to Gartner data. That's a decline of 3.8 percent.
The company's share of the market rose marginally from 7.1 to 7.2 percent, a significant uptick given that the overall PC industry saw shipments fall from 71.7 million to 68.6 million units. Some of the toughest blows were suffered by Asus and Acer, which saw their shipments drop 10.7 percent and 18.3 percent, respectively.
Lenovo, however, saw shipments rise 5.9 percent to 16.6 million, making it the dominant computer vendor with a 24.2 percent marketshare. HP ranked second despite a 4.4 percent dip, while Dell rose 1.4 percent to 10.9 million, keeping it securely in third place. Apple claimed fourth.
Gartner reported that top rankings should remain the same for 2018 as a whole, with Lenovo at 58.5 million units, HP at 56.3 million, Dell at 41.9 million, and Apple at 18 million -- Apple's numbers are estimated to be down 5 percent versus 2017.
Under pressure from phones and tablets, the PC industry has been in decline for seven years, and is forecast to see a 1.3 percent dip once 2018 data is finalized. Apple has yet to announce its official December-quarter financials.
On Jan. 2, though, it shocked the tech industry and investors by saying it was expecting $84 billion in revenue instead of a previously forecast $89 billion to $93 billion. CEO Tim Cook linked the issue mostly to poor Chinese iPhone sales, but also blamed "foreign exchange headwinds," fewer carrier subsidies, "economic weakness in some emerging markets," and its discounted iPhone battery replacement program.
Apple is allegedly cutting March-quarter iPhone production by 10 percent.
Gartner's PC data can sometimes be dramatically inaccurate. It initially estimated that Apple sold 4.9 million Macs in calendar Q3, when in reality it managed about 5.3 million.
Comments
Does this mean people aren’t embracing a y series processor and a 300 nit screen at a higher price, while lower priced competitors have u series processors? Or exorbitant prices for extra storage or memory over base config?
What is the world coming to?
* remembers its Gartner after all.
“Also, as I mentioned earlier, revenue outside of our iPhone business grew by almost 19 percent year-over-year, including all-time record revenue from Services, Wearables and Mac”
While is doesn’t guarantee that sales didn’t decline marginally, and Apple just sold each computer at a high ASP; the picture of Apple not doing well that Gartner is trying to paint, doesn’t correspond with the reality.
Such a shame though, it didn’t have to be this way. The neglect of the Mac platform as a whole is such a let down.
Some argue that Apple is now an iPhone company so the Mac doesn't matter. If that silliness is true, Tim Cook's commitment to the Mac would then be a lie, and then we have the bigger question of "why bother"? That's especially true of the Mac Pro. If rumors are right about the forthcoming Mac Pro being so expensive The Rest of Us cannot afford it, and thereby deliberately keeping the potential number of buyers to the same or less as the Apple Watch solid gold Edition buyers, why the heck do they even bother designing the thing? Seriously! It makes zero sense. Zero.
No, we need a true MacBook "Pro" and a 17" version, and an affordable Mac Pro too. One cannot argue in defense of the status quo anymore. Something big needs to change in Apple's design labs where function starts to take a little more priority than form. And I personally hope that change will be a stark IMPROVEMENT over what I've seen in the last few years. We need a Steve Jobsian style shakeup in Cupertino.
Also, please try to remember Gartner's extremely bad track record on predicting ... well, anything, but especially Apple sales. AI has done numerous articles (some not even by DED!) about how wrong Gartner (and IDC) have historically been on predicting Apple demand. We're 19 days away from the actual earnings report, and 20 days away from proving Gartner to be inaccurate yet again.
The mini is nice but is crippled with vampire video. I am so far underwhelmed by the eGPU options.