Apple Continues to Outpace Slumping PC Market in 3Q 2015

[MacRumors]

The PC market continues to slide, according to the latest estimates, and while Apple is seeing only a small gain or loss in shipments year-over-year depending on who is doing the counting, the Mac maker continues to outpace the overall market.

Gartner's Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q15 (Thousands of Units)​

Gartner's numbers show Apple shipping 5.6 million Macs worldwide during the third quarter, an increase of 1.5 percent over the third quarter of 2014 and good enough for fourth place with 7.6 percent of the market, placing behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell. The global market as a whole saw a 7.7 percent decline in shipments, with only Dell at 0.5 percent joining Apple among top vendors with shipment growth.

Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q15 (Thousands of Units)​

In the U.S., Gartner estimates Apple's shipments grew 7.3 percent to 2.5 million, ahead of the market's 1.3 percent growth. Apple ranked third with 14.8 percent of the market, although Lenovo is rapidly closing with strong U.S. sales growth.

Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-3Q15 (Gartner)​

Compared to Gartner, IDC predicts steeper losses for the PC market, pegging the global shipment decline at 10.8 percent year-over-year with Apple falling 3.4 percent. That was, however, still good enough for fourth place worldwide with 7.5 percent of the market. IDC's U.S. numbers put Apple at 1.6 percent growth, reaching 13.7 percent share to edge out Lenovo as the third largest seller of PCs while the overall U.S. market fell 0.7 percent.

A better picture of Apple's Mac shipments will come on October 27 when the company reports earnings for the typically strong back-to-school quarter.

Article Link: Apple Continues to Outpace Slumping PC Market in 3Q 2015

 

[pwhitehead]

This is awesome!

 

[Shirasaki]

All those investors want to see.

 

[liven2]

It will make do difference to investors... The stock will still get hammered and market manipulation will still continue. Apple stock will be below $100 soon. This has been a Trend for some time as it is how the 1% make their money.

 

[macduke]

I don't need a new Mac but want to run 4K or higher. Still waiting out Skylake iMacs to see how they're spec'd and priced.

I think the reason for the PC market decline is more than just smartphones and tablets. Just the computers themselves are now fast enough that most people just don't need to upgrade. You only need so many GHz to read your email. What is the software benefit from that extra speed for most people? The people who actually need the speed aside from gamers are professional photographers, video editors, and musicians. They generally buy Macs. Researchers generally run simulations on high end servers. Many gamers build their own box (I used to).

 

[Mums]

It will make do difference to investors... The stock will still get hammered and market manipulation will still continue. Apple stock will be below $100 soon. This has been a Trend for some time as it is how the 1% make their money.

Thank you for speaking the truth. Refreshing to read around here. Apple stock has been the most manipulated stock in history - after the price of gold. I wonder if Tim Cook even knows that Apple was converted into a colossal cash cow immediately after Steve Jobs' death.

 

[H2SO4]

Apple stock has been the most manipulated stock in history - after the price of gold.

Really, are you sure it’s not just your emotion spoeaking here?

 

[appledefenceforce]

but.. but... according to the internet Windows is better and OSX and Mac are useless??

 

[H2SO4]

but.. but... according to the internet Windows is better and OSX and Mac are useless??

Are you sure they said that? Link?

 

[laurihoefs]

I don't need a new Mac but want to run 4K or higher. Still waiting out Skylake iMacs to see how they're spec'd and priced.

I think the reason for the PC market decline is more than just smartphones and tablets. Just the computers themselves are now fast enough that most people just don't need to upgrade. You only need so many GHz to read your email. What is the software benefit from that extra speed for most people? The people who actually need the speed aside from gamers are professional photographers, video editors, and musicians. They generally buy Macs. Researchers generally run simulations on high end servers. Many gamers build their own box (I used to).

Comment to the bolded part:

Computing time is very expensive on HPC systems, and the systems are often shared between many people and organisations. Heavy number crunching is often done on these more powerful systems, but most development work is done on personal workstations or laptops.

It's also a huge advantage to be able to do at least preliminary number crunching and testing on your own workstation or laptop, so you don't tie the expensive shared computing resources on possible failed attemtps. You'll quickly anger your colleagues, if your code brings their work grinding to a halt.

 

[Zirel]

Really, are you sure it’s not just your emotion spoeaking here?

Yes.

Despite overwhelming success and no signs of it to stop, "presstitutes", still claim that's not good enough, and that they didn't meet "estimations" (from whom?) and Apple achievements, like managing to enter China very successfully (with a strong respect for the Chinese citizen and the Chinese government), are turned into negatives "they only sell X because they are selling it to the Chinese"

There's a cottage industry of blogs and YouTube channels that only exist for the main purpose of badmouthing Apple. "Apple Music has failed" on Forbes, "Apple wants to free the world of Free Music" on The Verge, etc.

Despite double digits growth, AAPL has a P/E bellow 13, while Google, with barely 10% growth, and Microsoft, with negative growth, have P/Es over 30!

Apple should just buy all their stock, be free of Wall Street, and let Jony Ive make even thinner iPhones and etc...

Wall Street is too dumb, too gullible, too ignorant for AAPL.

 

[2457282]

I don't need a new Mac but want to run 4K or higher. Still waiting out Skylake iMacs to see how they're spec'd and priced.

I think the reason for the PC market decline is more than just smartphones and tablets. Just the computers themselves are now fast enough that most people just don't need to upgrade. You only need so many GHz to read your email. What is the software benefit from that extra speed for most people? The people who actually need the speed aside from gamers are professional photographers, video editors, and musicians. They generally buy Macs. Researchers generally run simulations on high end servers. Many gamers build their own box (I used to).

At a general level my experience is similar.

I bought a 2012 iMac and packed it with the fastest CPU available, maxed out the memory and the hard drive. It is going strong today and I see no reason to upgrade it. As a matter of fact, I may never upgrade it. I am spending most of my time working through my ipad (as I type on it now) or on the iPhone. The computer usage is down to about 5% of all my technology usage. There are things that I prefer to do on the iMac because it is still better at it like video editing, but in general I am finding more and more that I can do what I need on the iPad just fine.

Microsoft is there as well with the surface. Even though the tablets are stalling a bit, I do believe they are eating into the PC sales. For me it is at a minimum delaying my purchase of a new desktop, and depending how things go it could delay it for ever.

Gamers and researchers and other specific roles that require serious level of CPU/GPU will always need desktops/workstations. However, there are many roles that use to need a computer that could easily get along with just an ipad an iphone.

 

[macs4nw]

Good news for Apple, but I have a selfish reason not to be too excited about Macs gaining ground. With more Macs in consumer's hands, the incentive for hackers increases to divert their attention from the world's most prevalent computers, the PCs, to the Mac, and that can't be good news for the Mac community.

Contrary to some poster's beliefs, Macs are not immune from malware, spyware, viruses, worms or trojan horses. Utter vigilance is still required when opening attachments or installing software, and even that can fall short as recently evidenced by the compromised XcodeGhost Malware debacle.

 

[satcomer]

If you really think about this news and the reaction of the tech news blogs if the just the old " Apple is doomed " style of articles!

The realism has always been something different. This older 2010 picture just proves my point.

 

[Crosscreek]

Apple needs a redesign with new innovation to fuel sales. Everybody has copied the current designs and its's time to give them something new to shoot for.

Get rid of that 21.5" iMac and move it up to 24". This is a popular size for AOI and displays.

 

[Zirel]

Apple needs a redesign with new innovation to fuel sales. Everybody has copied the current designs and its's time to give them something new to shoot for.

Get rid of that 21.5" iMac and move it up to 24". This is a popular size for AOI and displays.

They have stated some years ago that they are full of that **** that where they innovate and everyone else copies.

They are now focusing on copying everyone else, but doing a better job.

The result, you can turn a blind eye to Force Touch, and their haptics research, but once you look at the competition, you can see that nobody else is also "not innovating"!

 

[NT1440]

They have stated some years ago that they are full of that **** that where they innovate and everyone else copies.

They are now focusing on copying everyone else, but doing a better job.

The result, you can turn a blind eye to Force Touch, and their haptics research, but once you look at the competition, you can see that nobody else is also not innovating!

I fail to see how designing their own timing chip, form factor (Mac Pro), lowest latency stylus around, mobile processors that are literally at least a year ahead of the competition, etc.

Yes Apple may have products that aren't the first, but the engineering that they pour into their implementation is the furthest thing from "copying" I can think of. Anyone could have gone the Dell route and hacked the DisplayPort standard to make a 5K display (with two plugs, lazy engineering), Apple chose to design their own chip which, SURPRISE, is the reason they are able to drive the display on the iPad Pro. I've never seen a company with a more deliberate R&D strategy that slowly but surely applies to other product lines.


EDIT: Upon review I think I may have missed the mark on your post. My points are valid, but a careful reading makes me think you were saying Apple IS innovating. My apologies if I misunderstood.

 

[nelsonammo]

Wow 15% marketshare in the US. That's gotta be their highest ever since the Apple II days, no?

 

[ignatius345]

Thank you for speaking the truth. Refreshing to read around here. Apple stock has been the most manipulated stock in history - after the price of gold. I wonder if Tim Cook even knows that Apple was converted into a colossal cash cow immediately after Steve Jobs' death.

Please. The market is about money, and it's always about money. AAPL is not special or different. Sounds like somebody bought some shares and is letting emotion get the best of them.

 

[ignatius345]

Wow 15% marketshare in the US. That's gotta be their highest ever since the Apple II days, no?

I love it. I work in an office where everyone is issued a PC, but slowly Macs creep in at the edges (conference rooms, people's personal machines). iOS really is a great trojan horse in that respect -- people get iPhones, they work beautifully, and then they find out OS X and Mac hardware is also great.

 

[69Mustang]

Good news for Apple, but I have a selfish reason not to be too excited about Macs gaining ground. With more Macs in consumer's hands, the incentive for hackers increases to divert their attention from the world's most prevalent computers, the PCs, to the Mac, and that can't be good news for the Mac community.

Contrary to some poster's beliefs, Macs are not immune from malware, spyware, viruses, worms or trojan horses. Utter vigilance is still required when opening attachments or installing software, and even that can fall short as recently evidenced by the compromised XcodeGhost Malware debacle.

Security through obscurity is not really security. Apple's vigilance regarding security is the only answer to hackers. Vendors will always be responding to whatever hackers devise, and they (hackers) are always devising new and more insidious attacks. Security, be it for Macs or PCs, is an never ending game of leap frog. I would hope members of this community wouldn't be susceptible to the naivete of complete Mac immunity. Less immune yes. That's a combination of smaller marketshare and Apple's vigilance; primarily vigilance in my opinion.

On topic: Macduke said it nicely. Device capability is outstriping general consumer needs. Outside of niche power users, a mid range PC/Mac from 2012 can still meet the needs of the vast majority of the consuming public.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Security through obscurity is not really security. Apple's vigilance regarding security is the only answer to hackers. Vendors will always be responding to whatever hackers devise, and they (hackers) are always devising new and more insidious attacks. Security, be it for Macs or PCs, is an never ending game of leap frog. I would hope members of this community wouldn't be susceptible to the naivete of complete Mac immunity. Less immune yes. That's a combination of smaller marketshare and Apple's vigilance; primarily vigilance in my opinion.

On topic: Macduke said it nicely. Device capability is outstriping general consumer needs. Outside of niche power users, a mid range PC/Mac from 2012 can still meet the needs of the vast majority of the consuming public.

Thats it in a nutshell. I bought my sis a top of the line iPad instead of a new computer earlier this year.

 

[macduke]

At a general level my experience is similar.

I bought a 2012 iMac and packed it with the fastest CPU available, maxed out the memory and the hard drive. It is going strong today and I see no reason to upgrade it. As a matter of fact, I may never upgrade it. I am spending most of my time working through my ipad (as I type on it now) or on the iPhone. The computer usage is down to about 5% of all my technology usage. There are things that I prefer to do on the iMac because it is still better at it like video editing, but in general I am finding more and more that I can do what I need on the iPad just fine.

Microsoft is there as well with the surface. Even though the tablets are stalling a bit, I do believe they are eating into the PC sales. For me it is at a minimum delaying my purchase of a new desktop, and depending how things go it could delay it for ever.

Gamers and researchers and other specific roles that require serious level of CPU/GPU will always need desktops/workstations. However, there are many roles that use to need a computer that could easily get along with just an ipad an iphone.

Yeah, when I compare my mid-2012 rMBP and late 2012 iMac at work, the performance scores haven't increased much in subsequent generations. The main speed increase is with the graphics card which is the only thing I need to run 4K and help minimize the occasional UI lag. Otherwise I'm satisfied with the performance. That might change when I upgrade my camera and need to process even bigger RAW files, but for now it's fine. My early 2008 MacBook Pro was already getting pretty sluggish by the time I ordered my early 2011 MBP and the difference was huge. The difference from early 2011 to mid-2012 was much less but I had a bunch of college graduation money and wanted that retina display and larger SSD so I pulled the trigger. Now I keep waiting for the next big leap in computing tech as my rMBP doesn't seem sluggish except for occasional UI lag. I thought Skylake might be the ticket but it doesn't seem like it is. But like you I use my Mac much less than I used to, at least at home. However I think part of that is I want a bigger display and what used to be a great IPS monitor that I had has color shifted pretty badly (even with calibration),has connection issues, and can't use the full screen resolution any more after using the work around I use to mitigate connection issues. I use my iMac all day at work but there's not much chance of me getting an upgrade on this thing for a while—probably not until the third gen 5K iMac. Maybe I'll just get that in early 2017 and if it's good I'll upgrade at home at the same time.

 

[sudo1996]

It will make do difference to investors... The stock will still get hammered and market manipulation will still continue. Apple stock will be below $100 soon. This has been a Trend for some time as it is how the 1% make their money.

The trend is that AAPL has been going up for years. Also, the investors probably don't care very much about Mac sales since they don't make much of Apple's profit.

 

[sudo1996]

I love it. I work in an office where everyone is issued a PC, but slowly Macs creep in at the edges (conference rooms, people's personal machines). iOS really is a great trojan horse in that respect -- people get iPhones, they work beautifully, and then they find out OS X and Mac hardware is also great.

Mhm, even better on a college campus. I see many more Macs than other PCs around here. It's assumed when asking for tech support in a class that you have a Mac, which is very nice.