Apple's Worldwide Mac Shipments Up in Q2 2020 Amid Overall PC Market Growth

[CWallace]

Well when you start with much lower numbers, even minimal growth can be a large percentage boost.

It's why iPhone sales as a percentage climbed effectively vertically for a decade before they finally reached saturation.

 

[Analog Kid]

It depends on whose numbers you choose to believe, right?

IDC has Apple with an huge blowout quarter, beating every single PC maker: yes, Apple #1 in growth rate by an incredible amount—anywhere from 2

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This is exactly why many ignore fabricated shipment figures from market research firms.

So, just average them, right?

/s
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Well when you start with much lower numbers, even minimal growth can be a large percentage boost.

It's why iPhone sales as a percentage climbed effectively vertically for a decade before they finally reached saturation.

4 million isn’t exactly a small number...

iPhone sales went vertical because they essentially created a revolution. PC shipments are pretty mature and entrenched. I think the time series shows that the noise is pretty low on this 4 million, seasonally adjusted.

As @PickUrPoison pointed out, I think most of the noise that’s there is because of vastly different assumptions in the model and the fact that whatever assumptions held in 2019 probably don’t in 2020...

 

[konqerror]

I'm surprised to see this. The Dells I purchased over the decades (mostly Precision) have been reliable, capable and reasonably priced.

Precision and Optiplex = enterprise line. Go try a home model, particularly a low-end Inspiron or XPS. Completely different quality. Support experiences are completely different too, enterprise lines are mostly US and Canada whereas home models are completely offshore.

 

[CWallace]

Well we shall have a better idea when Apple announces their earnings later this month and we can see how Mac revenue has grown/shrunk.

 

[theorist9]

Wait, this can't be right. We know the Mac is dead, and that we're all going to be using iPads. We know this because people on the internet said so.

There's also this from Mac World:

"Kuo says the new MacBook Pro models will begin shipping “in late 2Q21 or 3Q21” so we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer to see what Apple has up its sleeve. According to his report, the new models could spark a renewed interest in the MacBook line to the tune of 18 to 20 million units, a significant increase over the 16 to 17 million units expected to ship this year, according to Kuo."

The first Apple silicon-based MacBooks are coming soon—and big changes may be in store

Respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has a new report on the first Apple silicon-based Macs, and there could be big changes on the horizon.

www.macworld.com

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Precision and Optiplex = enterprise line. Go try a home model, particularly a low-end Inspiron or XPS. Completely different quality. Support experiences are completely different too, enterprise lines are mostly US and Canada whereas home models are completely offshore.

Consistent with this, here are the rankings from Consumer Report's annual survey of laptop reliablity:

 

[fairuz]

Do you have repair data? The only data I ever saw was that compiled by Apple Insider and it showed the 2016 keyboard was worse than the 2015 (but the overall repair rate for the machine was lower) and by 2018 it looked like the keyboard failure rate was nominally below but statistically equal to the 2015.

I've always wanted to see hard statistics on this to separate the signal from the echo chamber, but never found anything more than those studies.

Sadly I don't, it's confidential within my company. But basically, these keyboards are a pain in the rear for tech support.
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Precision and Optiplex = enterprise line. Go try a home model, particularly a low-end Inspiron or XPS. Completely different quality. Support experiences are completely different too, enterprise lines are mostly US and Canada whereas home models are completely offshore.

Who's better then? I'm thinking about all the other big ones, and they're problematic, especially Lenovo and HP. Every Dell I've owned or used has just worked, to the extent that a non-Apple PC can "just work."

 

[konqerror]

Who's better then? I'm thinking about all the other big ones, and they're problematic, especially Lenovo and HP. Every Dell I've owned or used has just worked, to the extent that a non-Apple PC can "just work."

Well the answer is really not to buy any home computers. Just click on the the right web store and pay a few hundred more for an enterprise model. The difference is night and day.

 

[ElectricPotato]

Every Dell I've owned or used has just worked, to the extent that a non-Apple PC can "just work."

They aren't the sexiest, fastest or least expensive. They are a source of reliable, well supported grunt that lets you focus on the job and not the hardware. Absolutist statements claiming no value from Dell do not match my experience.

 

[fairuz]

Well the answer is really not to buy any home computers. Just click on the the right web store and pay a few hundred more for an enterprise model. The difference is night and day.

Even for those who want to spend that much, Dell sells workstations too.

 

[theorist9]

Well the answer is really not to buy any home computers. Just click on the the right web store and pay a few hundred more for an enterprise model. The difference is night and day.

Just because something is enterprise-class doesn't mean its realiability is good:

on the subject of work laptops, our workplace lets us choose from a narrow selection of dell latitudes or HP elitebooks. Dells latitudes are so unreliable they make the HPs look good, and we try to go HP.
For docks and displays though, we prefer to get the dell options we are allowed to consider rather than the totally unreliable and badly built rubbish from HP.

If you're a consumer, and want to go enterprise class because you think that might give higher reliability, you should first try get statistics on the reliability of enterprise-class models to see which brand is best. Or go with consumer gear, using Consumer Report's reliability figures*, which means you'd want to stick with Apple, LG, or Samsung. [And if you do go with Apple, buy the AppleCare warranty! All laptops, even Apple's, have a high potential for reliability issues; it's just that Apple's are the best of the bunch.]

[*CU members are reporting based on whatever they own, so these might actually be a mix of consumer and enterprise, but probably heavily weighted towards consumer.]