Apple's U.S. Mac Shipments Fall 7.5% as Overall PC Market Plunges 14% Year-Over-Year [Updated]

[student_trap]

You're pretty much right on point here. However, I cannot imagine sitting at a desk in front of computer screen anymore. Everything I want to do can be done with a laptop, wherever I want to do it. Also, it used to be that you needed a new PC to get "faster" experience. Now it's like the stereo harmonic distortion spec wars, the speed increases are so incremental, you hardly notice them. The result...you don't upgrade unless there is a really serious reason to do so, usually a heavy CPU using program that you just have to speed up to make it tolerable to run. For the $1300+ Mac price tag, it's going to make me wait until upgrading is a necessity, not an impulse. And since you can buy a relatively "cheap" ipad to do most of your routine activities, the next purchase is delayed even more. All this leads to fewer Mac purchases.

But then again...I'm just a lowly average consumer.

I totally agree. I used to buy a new mac fairly regularly and went from Powerbook to Macbook pro to Macbook + Mac Pro within 4 years (passing down the older models at each upgrade to family).

But since buying my Mac Pro, now over 5 years ago, I still have no NEED to upgrade. Granted I still use CS5 rather than newer software. But it still runs everything it did the same as the day I bought it. And in addition, I have had 2 ipads so far (1st and then 2nd gen), which are now used for all of my surfing and light tasks, meaning the big old tower is only really used for proper work.

My next upgrade will be an SSD and more ram for the mac pro rather than a new machine. Its funny though, because when I bought it my aim was to replace it after 5 years. But now, 5 years down the line, assuming it still physically works I'm now hoping to get another 5 years out of it for a grand total of 10 years.

 

[iGrip]

?

Well yeah, of course it does. The Surface Pro is a laptop in a tablet form factor, it uses an x86 processor.

What exactly are you trying to say/prove? I'm genuinely curious...

He's saying that Apple's tablet is a toy compared to the Surface. Heck. the ipad runs a cellphone OS while the Surface runs an OS suitable for a professional workstation. He's saying that the iPad is not nearly as good a computing device as the Surface, and until Apple kicks up its game, it never will be.

 

[Lancer]

The 2012 iMac wasn't created solely for those who own a 2011 iMac... it's for anyone who owns any iMac from any prior year. Or for first-time iMac users too!

But my point was also that look at the iPad, didn't the last update 'double' the speed as Apple likes to say going from the iPad3 to the iPad4? So the speed of development coupled with the huge potential market for tablets mean of course they are going to grow faster than Desktop or Laptops which most people will have (that are in the market for a tablet)

I don't think the traditional 'PC' is dead, whether its a desktop or laptop but I do think for many people the PC tower is no longer needed and a laptop or AIO like the iMac is the preferred option for many. Maybe that also explains Apple's growth? Coupled with PC people who buy an iPad or iPhone and then want the full Apple experience.

 

[TallManNY]

My Macbook 2007 is going pretty strong. It will probably get replaced this year since some keys occasionally get a little wonky and it lagging just a touch. But the main benefit for the replacement will be the retina screen and the light weight. Both of those improvements are reaching theoretical limits. My next laptop will have a retina screen and no further laptop will ever be able to give me a pixel improvement that I can see. My next laptop will be quite light. Maybe another pound can be shaved off over time, but that is probably the limit of improvement that can be done over the next ten years. And saving a pound isn't that big a deal.

So i'm expecting five years out of my next laptop as well. And I'm a techy guy with a fair amount of disposable cash. But the companies can't sell to me much faster than four year upgrades for my main desktop or six year upgrades for my laptop.

 

[iGrip]

So Apple 'PC' sales grew by 7.5% with most other fell?

No. That is what a damn ANALyst says. They are always wrong.

 

[Rogifan]

Microsoft was up 3% yesterday and now is down 3% pre-market on two analyst downgrades, one to a sell. On CNBC they were talking about speculation that Microsoft should go private. How would that even be possible? Isn't their market cap like $250B?

 

[dec.]

He's saying that Apple's tablet is a toy compared to the Surface. Heck. the ipad runs a cellphone OS while the Surface runs an OS suitable for a professional workstation. He's saying that the iPad is not nearly as good a computing device as the Surface, and until Apple kicks up its game, it never will be.

I'm not sure if Apple really sees a need to adjust their successful products to something that so far does not seem to be in demand at all (to put it nicely and avoid the term "flop")?

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

People are not refreshing computers like they used to. Where I work it has gone from a 3 year refresh, to a 4, and now 5 year refresh.

We are also starting to implement VDI where it makes sense and this will really start to eat into computer sales.

The days of swapping out that old workstation every 2 to 3 years are gone.

This exactly, although I might even argue that it goes beyond 5 years.

All of the "See! Nobody wants computer anymore! Tablets 4ever!" people just don't really make sense. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, still has a computer. And that's the problem. The market is a) completely saturated and b) has lengthening refresh cycles. The PC's we all have are good enough. But I know that I still intend to buy a computer when my late 2007 Macbook goes out. I would say a tablet replaces about 75% of a persons needs, but they still have that other 25% and it's going to be pretty annoying to not have a computer to fall back on when they want one. Hence, this truck isn't going anywhere.

 

[redrog]

Here's my 2p

Business (75% of the PC market)
-most of these people will still need a computer
-field based staff will increasingly use tablets and smartphones so there will generally be a longer replacement cycle
-office based staff still need a PC, but are likely also to see longer replacement cycles
-increased use of virtaulisation software to allow user choice, protect data and reduce hardware costs will also contribute to a longer replacement cycle and probably hit the makers of mid priced badly designed corporate fodder like Dell the hardest.

Consumer (25% of market)
-Virtually 100% tablet/smartphone use over time
-PC needs radically diminished, way longer replacement cycles, if at all due to lack of use, and cloud based solutions for media storage.

Prediction -Traditional PC market will halve from 2011 levels before 2020.

 

[Oracle1729]

My newest Mac is a 2011 MBP, and I don't have a new purchase planned. It's very rare for me to go a whole year without buying a mac, but I was waiting for the iMac refresh and then got the super-thin, super-crippled crap and was pushed into the hackintosh camp.

If Apple does go all retina notebooks then I currently own the last mac I'll buy since I will never buy a computer without an industry standard hard drive bay (loving my 256 gig SSD I paid under $200 for), and memory slots ($80 for 16 gig).

I most certainly am in the minority, but these numbers do show Apple is losing sales they don't have to. Retina is nice, a real hard drive is nicer. A friend of mine just bout a Dell for 1/3rd the price of my MBP and it had the HD bay, CD drive, and an mSATA bay. Right now Timmy is Apple's own worst enemy and he needs to get over his anorexia.

As for the PC plunge, windows 8 explains it. I was trying it out in the MS store and the sales drone asked me how I liked it. I said Windows 8 the best thing that ever happened to Apple.

 

[Exhale]

iMac gets a 10% cpu boost every year but it also gets faster memory, faster bus, faster ssd, faster gpu so the overall performance is more than 10%.

Performance isn't additive.

If you only upgrade your CPU, the computer would not become 10% faster.

If all components become 10% faster than their previous, then you have a 10% faster computer.

 

[Rogifan]

No. That is what a damn ANALyst says. They are always wrong.

But IDC ANALysts are right?

 

[Oracle1729]

Consumer (25% of market)
-Virtually 100% tablet/smartphone use over time
-PC needs radically diminished, way longer replacement cycles, if at all due to lack of use, and cloud based solutions for media storage.

Prediction -Traditional PC market will halve from 2011 levels before 2020.

I actually hope you're right, computers were so much better before they went mainstream. If "virtually 100%" of consumers leave the traditional PC market it can go back to being a niche for people with actual brains. It would be wonderful to go back to having a tiny market aimed at people who actually understand what they're doing and don't need hand-holding idiot features. Even if lower demand doubles prices, I'm used to that from before the computer explosion and am quite happy for it to happen again.

 

[BrotherBeagle]

It's a shame Bluetooth keyboards and mice don't exist. Too bad there is no such thing as mirroring apps either. Oh wait, they do.

What?!?

The cat's talking about a development station. You need a Mac (or development tools ported to Windows, Linux, etc...) in order to develop for the iOS platform. Things like accessible file systems and greater than development target specs (consider that Xcode provides multi-device simulators for code testing) are necessary.

This is where I really don't get Apple: They leverage iOS development on the sale of Macs and then treat the professionals bound to their tools as second class citizens.

I'll (grudgingly) allow that the Xserve was an acceptable casualty (mostly because I tossed OS X Server aside like the broken toy it has become). But the fact that Apple can't see (or simply doesn't care) that enterprise needs are there to support end users continues to leave me scratching my head.

 

[iGrip]

I'm not sure if Apple really sees a need to adjust their successful products to something that so far does not seem to be in demand at all (to put it nicely and avoid the term "flop")?

Apple knows how to make scads of moolah. Nobody could argue otherwise.

So Apple will sell whatever will produce profits, whether superior, inferior or otherwise.

----------

But IDC ANALysts are right?

If you say so.

 

[Winni]

People are not refreshing computers like they used to. Where I work it has gone from a 3 year refresh, to a 4, and now 5 year refresh.

We are also starting to implement VDI where it makes sense and this will really start to eat into computer sales.

The days of swapping out that old workstation every 2 to 3 years are gone.

Exactly. The technology from five years ago is still more than powerful enough to serve most of today's tasks - unless you are a power user (read: somebody whose actual WORK requires the last tech to be done in a finite time frame) or unless you suffer from the need to always have the latest and greatest, there is no compelling reason to constantly buy new equipment.

Windows 8 runs better on five year old systems than Windows 7 or Vista. Usually a new operating system release was a reason to upgrade the hardware. Nowadays, a new OS version breathes new life into old hardware.

I don't think that tablets replace PCs - at least not today's tablets. Only Microsoft's Surface tablet is a real PC replacement because of its hybrid nature. Canonical's Ubuntu also has the potential to change the game: Their vision is to turn a smartphone (or tablet) into a full blown PC - just put the damn thing in a docking station and your phone IS your PC, all with the same operating system.

But that still is a few months or one to two years in the future.

Today, people buy tablets to accompany their PCs - not to replace them.

 

[redrog]

I actually hope you're right, computers were so much better before they went mainstream. If "virtually 100%" of consumers leave the traditional PC market it can go back to being a niche for people with actual brains. It would be wonderful to go back to having a tiny market aimed at people who actually understand what they're doing and don't need hand-holding idiot features. Even if lower demand doubles prices, I'm used to that from before the computer explosion and am quite happy for it to happen again.

Not sure if it will double price, but I would have thought it will drive up quality. People will expect the tablet experience. Question for Apple is, as consumer is their biggest market, is it still worth bothering or will the virtualisation drive benefit them in the workplace.

 

[iBug2]

Performance isn't additive.

If you only upgrade your CPU, the computer would not become 10% faster.

If all components become 10% faster than their previous, then you have a 10% faster computer.

Except not all components get a 10% boost. Most of the time te gpu gets a 50+% boost so games run much faster than 10%. Memory jumped from 1333 to 1600, which is a 30% boost. SATA II to SATA III is a 100% boost if you have an SSD. Overall boost of a newer machine is always higher than the cpu boost alone.

 

[SanJacinto]

Well, according to Gartner's numbers they increased 7.5%

Analysts...enough said!


So if it's an increase or decline, Apple is still doing great compaired to most of its competitors.

Only Lenova has an increase, but this is probably do to their professional notebooks.
Here in Europe, they have a line of 13" and 15" "hard plastic looking" heavy-duty notebooks and desktops that are quite robust and are favored with companies that use Wintel systems.

Ahh ok, you are right. I didn't get the update.
The Gartner numbers are quite funny. They are nearly identical, except for "Others" and Apple.
How could this happen - estimates, estimates. I love analysts.

I hope the Mac will stay for at least another 15 years or so.
I know that tablets are the way to go, but for some data I do want to have a capable notebook or a desktop machine (produced by Apple).

 

[bawbac]

Surprising they didn't fall the most. Highest prices around.

Well, Apple only has 10-11% of the computer sales.
That seems to correlate with their high prices.

----------

I'm not sure if Apple really sees a need to adjust their successful products to something that so far does not seem to be in demand at all (to put it nicely and avoid the term "flop")?

So it's acceptable for Apple computers that have only penatrated ~10% of the computer market but not OK for a tablet for real business work or use to have the same market share?
Does this mean Apple computers are a flop?

 

[newdeal]

The Pentium 4 has some severe limitations that affect a lot of people, even if Joe Six-pack doesn't have a problem.

For my Core i7 home system, the big headache is that it's maxed out at 24 GiB of RAM. I'll be replacing it soon solely due to that limitation.

Your comments are true for some, but for people who need more RAM even systems from a few years ago are inadequate.

The average joe does not need more than 4gb of ram and really likely could get by with 2gb, if you need more than 24gb then you are far from being average in terms of computer use. Most people just surf the web and organize their music and photos

 

[Razeus]

Probably because Apple has priced the iMacs out of their original market.

When I bought my mid-2010 iMac, it came with a 7200rpm drive for $1199. Now they come with a slower 5400rpm drive for $1299. If I want to be more modern with better tech, I'd need an SSD (let's face it, computers should come with SSD's standard - especially the iMacs), and that runs an extra $250 bringing a modern base model to $1549. That's $350 more than I used to pay. I thought you were suppose to get more tech for the same price.

 

[patseguin]

Well, for one Macs are overpriced for the technology they offer. They've long offered outdated video cards that won't run modern games. Additionally, I believe that tablet sales are cannibalizing Mac desktop and notebook sales. With iCloud, it's not really even necessary to have a Mac when you have an iOS device. For gaming, I defer to PC for its obvious hardware advantages, but aside from gaming, I'd say 90% of my computer time is spent on tablets.

 

[needfx]

has anyone posted "apple is doomed"?

 

[mslide]

I'm shocked Apple only dropped that much with their computers being so much more expensive compared to budget PCs that have more than enough power for the great majority of consumers. That combined with how long a Mac can last.