Apple Rises to Become World's Fourth-Largest PC Maker With Around 20M Macs Sold Last Year

[MacRumors]

Apple rose to become the world's fourth-largest PC maker in 2017, as Mac sales increased to nearly 20 million during the year, according to the latest estimates shared by research firms IDC and Gartner.

The roughly 19.6 million total is based on Apple's reported Mac sales of 13.9 million units in the first three calendar quarters of the year, while IDC and Gartner estimate Apple sold another 5.4 million to 5.7 million Macs in the fourth quarter.

Apple officially reported sales of 18.5 million Macs in 2016, so the company is looking at year-over-year growth of around four to six percent based on the IDC and Gartner data. Apple sold over 20 million Macs in both 2014 and 2015, however, so 2017 was likely not a record-breaking year for the Mac.

Apple leapfrogged either Asus or Acer depending on which dataset you look at, as IDC and Gartner have slightly different estimates. Both research firms have Apple trailing behind HP, Lenovo, and Dell, which shipped an estimated 58.8 million, 54.8 million, and 41.8 million PCs respectively last year per IDC.

Apple's growth in 2017 is impressive given Gartner claims it was the sixth consecutive year of declining PC shipments. The year saw Apple refresh its MacBook Pro and iMac lineups with Kaby Lake processors, give the base MacBook Air a slight speed boost, and launch an all-new iMac Pro.

We'll know exactly how many Macs were sold in 2017 when Apple reports its next earnings results on February 1, but if these estimates prove to be accurate, it was a financially successful year for the Mac.

Article Link: Apple Rises to Become World's Fourth-Largest PC Maker With Around 20M Macs Sold Last Year

 

[otternonsense]

And imagine how much they'd sell had they bothered to keep the entire lineup up to speed.

 

[826317]

They sell 20 million Macs yet there are people who state that only uneducated rich people buy them hahahaha!

 

[Moonjumper]

Sort the Mac Mini and Mac Pro out and it could be much higher.

 

[RickInHouston]

That's amazing for a phone company!

 

[scrapesleon]

Still haven’t entice me to upgrade my Mac last year Maybe this year you will hopefully

 

[AFEPPL]

They sell 20 million Macs yet there are people who state that only uneducated rich people buy them hahahaha!

Or corporates...

 

[maflynn]

Nice, but look at the disparity. 7.6% marketshare vs. +20% for both HP and Lenovo and of course Dell at 16%

 

[Yvan256]

Imagine how many more they would sell if they bothered to upgrade them every year, like every other computer company on the planet with much smaller bank accounts.

Quad-core Mac minis with user-upgradable RAM slots, not thin-laptop-design-in-a-desktop-case.

Really updated MacBook Airs. Not three-generations-ago processors and TN displays. But keep the currents ports and keyboard. Or if they drop magsafe, replace it with USB-C but keep the other two USB-A ports as well.

A Mac Pro that is actually made for pros. Function before form.

 

[ChrisCW11]

Apple updated their products, and sales increased. Imagine that! 2017 is the year that most people holding off on a 3+ year old Mac decided to upgrade because "just enough" changes occurred this year to warrant an upgrade.

Now imagine sales if Apple actually brought some actual innovation and much needed real changes to their Mac platform?

 

[Doomtomb]

I would like to know what the break down of iMacs vs MacBooks were sold

 

[leman]

Nice, but look at the disparity. 7.6% marketshare vs. +20% for both HP and Lenovo and of course Dell at 16%

Sure, but most of HP/Lenovo/Dell sold machines are low-end cheaper units. Apple only sells high-end. I would like to see a breakdown on that as well, I'd suspect though that Apple leads in the premium business notebook shipments.

 

[e-coli]

The growth of their dongle business must be off the charts.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Outdated tech in most of the lineup. It's really a shame.

 

[DNichter]

And still a ton of opportunity if they can get it together. Updated hardware and better software should help.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Kind of a meaningless ranking when there are only two major commercial OSes and the "competitor" ahead of Apple shipped 2x as many units as Apple. If this chart was organized as Windows 10 computers shipped vs Mac OS it wouldn't look as pretty.

 

[Morod]

I got a new 21.5" iMac last year.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Nice, but look at the disparity. 7.6% marketshare vs. +20% for both HP and Lenovo and of course Dell at 16%

When I first started following Apple in 2000, they weren’t even selling 1 million Macs a quarter. So this means that from 2000 to now, they’ve increased Mac sales five-fold. Not too shabby for a chronically “beleaguered” company.

 

[Glideslope]

Very nice. Now if they can just get the OS to work..........

 

[isotropic]

An important aspect is that Apple average selling prince is probably double from HP and Lenovo. %margin is for sure higher for Apple as well. So, I would say Apple should be close to being #1 in terms of profits from the PC business. I have not seen any 300 USD Apple laptops last time I checked.

 

[manu chao]

Sort the Mac Mini and Mac Pro out and it could be much higher.

Maybe for the Mac Mini, but the Mac Pro was never a huge seller. What is the marketshare of Xeon-based computers outside of server farms in the non-Mac computer market?

 

[Glideslope]

Nice, but look at the disparity. 7.6% marketshare vs. +20% for both HP and Lenovo and of course Dell at 16%

Daring post there. The sales vs market share members are waiting to attack........

 

[throttlemeister]

They sell 20 million Macs yet there are people who state that only uneducated rich people buy them hahahaha!

Well, given there are 6 billion people on this planet, and 1% of the population owns >90% of the wealth on this planet and 1% of 6 billion is 60 million......

 

[otternonsense]

When I first started following Apple in 2000, they weren’t even selling 1 million Macs a quarter. So this means that from 2000 to now, they’ve increased Mac sales five-fold. Not too shabby for a chronically “beleaguered” company.

One difference I have to point out though, Apple struck large corporate deals and "bring your own device" programs just in the past couple of years. I work in a consultancy where MacBook Pro's are now standard issue, which would have been unthinkable before in such a Lenovo-first firm.

So I'm really curious to know what's the percentage of end-user sales VS company dispatch.

 

[ahostmadsen]

Nice, but look at the disparity. 7.6% marketshare vs. +20% for both HP and Lenovo and of course Dell at 16%

But take into consideration that Apple only sells high-end PCs. What could be their share of their target $1000+ market? Probably much high then 10%.