Kuo: MacBook Sales Down 30% Amid No New Products for Remainder of 2023

[MacRumors]

MacBook sales have dropped significantly amid Apple's decision to launch no new Macs for the remainder of 2023, Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports.

In a new post on Medium, Kuo claimed that MacBook sales as a whole are expected to be around 30% lower this year compared to 2022, reducing to about 17 million units. He highlighted that demand for the 15-inch MacBook Air has dropped substantially following the end of the back-to-school period, revising shipment forecasts down by approximately 20% or more.

In September, Kuo reported that Apple is unlikely to release any new MacBook models with the M3 chip this year. With no new product launches for the rest of 2023, Kuo now expects MacBook shipment momentum to be significantly lower than in previous seasons. He added that declining work-from-home demand and the waning appeal of Apple silicon and mini-LED displays are also driving MacBook sales down.

Kuo believes that one reason for Apple choosing to withhold the launch of any products is to clear inventory ahead of new releases next year. Apple apparently expects the M3 series of chips to boost Mac sales in 2024, but Kuo says this is yet to be seen.

In a previous report, Kuo seemed skeptical of new MacBooks with M3 chips boosting sales. He warned that demand for these devices might still be "below expectations" due to a "lack of growth drivers." Kuo was essentially saying that Apple will no longer have the growth catalysts that it did over the past few years, such as a pandemic-driven work-from-home boost in demand or the newness of Apple silicon, which spurred many customers to upgrade from Intel-based Macs. However, given Mac and iPad sales already significantly declined in 2023, Apple will at least have more favorable year-over-year sales comparisons in 2024.

Article Link: Kuo: MacBook Sales Down 30% Amid No New Products for Remainder of 2023

 

[abatabia]

There’s only so much mileage to be gotten out of these minor spec bumps before it might affect things. Also the M1 Mac’s were that good. My M1 MBA is my favorite MacBook of all time.

 

[MBAir2010]

because the 2020 ones were that great?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I think many people are waiting longer to upgrade and or purchase a laptop. Even if there were new Macs offered, I don't think there would be a big surge in sales outside of MR.

 

[Light Focus]

I'm not sure but I think 8+256 base config in 2023 and insane upgrade cost will put some people off

 

[Jim Lahey]

I imagine most buyers are getting sick to the back teeth of being mugged off with the extortionate extra costs of choosing something other than decade-old memory and storage options. Made worse by the drop in read/write performance of a single 256GB chip vs. the parallelism of 512+

 

[McJobs]

Blame Intel.

 

[scheinderrob]

too much money for ram/storage specs from 15 years ago

 

[Rradcircless]

Terrible economies across the world, with Apple’s premium pricing? And releasing new models every year? Everybody already has a MacBook or don’t want to invest in one right now.

 

[Powerbooky]

I might be in for a M3 Mac mini, replacing my good old 2008 Mac Pro and I hope that I can use that mini for 10-15 years too. Actually my MacBook Pro (2011!) needs a replacement too, as the broken AMD GPU is starting to annoy more and more even though the guys of Open Core Legacy Patcher do such a great job.

But I'm not relying on some professional gambler (aka analyst). Whenever Apple is ready and releases something, I'll take a look at it.

 

[Rradcircless]

I'm not sure but I think 8+256 base config in 2023 and insane upgrade cost will put some people off

It’s indefensible.

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

I have an M1 MBA (base config) and an M1 Mac mini (16 GB memory) and... they're more than fast enough for everything I need to do.
In fact, they generally run circles around even my fairly new Windows gaming laptop (12th gen i5, 16 GB RAM) for everything that's not gaming.

For a lot of people, I think, there's just no need to get anything new.
Plus, at least here in Europe, some of the prices for Apple devices have gone up noticeably.

 

[semyon]

I need a new laptop for work. Should've gotten the 16GB upgrade back when I bought the '20 mba, never thought I'd hold on to it for as long as I am. Don't want to get an M2 now, but I desperately need much more memory - I was really hoping/banking on a late 2023 release for at least a new Air. :/

 

[dannys1]

We have had new products though. The M2 Pro/Max MacBook Pro isn only 10 months old! It's hardly time to replace it yet. The 15-inch MBA came out. This year has also see the entire desktop line refreshed apart from the iMac.

In fact the iMac is only system due an update and to be honest the M1 is more than enough power for who that is aimed at anyway and it looks like it'll go straight to the lower end M3 when it's finally updated.

This site moans if things are updated too often and moans when they're not updated often enough - there's never a happy medium, but for sure there's no need for a MacBook Pro to be updated more often than an iPhone!

 

[Leon Ze Professional]

I don't expect the M3 chip to turn Macbook purchasing trends around. OK the M3 will have hardware ray-tracing which will assist graphic intensive applications.

But there will otherwise be only just a minor enhancement boost to performance.

It's not as if the A17 pro has set high expectations, if anything maybe the opposite. So the M3 chip should be viewed in that light.

 

[Juraj22]

"waning appeal of Apple silicon" LOL, as there is something better....Maybe in 2024 Qualcomm chip..let's see. Competition is good. Maybe M3 MacBooks get 5G modem. One can dream...

 

[gpat]

Apple is probably still enjoying record profit margins on the sold Macs.
Not having to pay Intel for processors is quite the game changer.
Otherwise they work fine, there's little to be said.

 

[StoneJack]

1. Generally, economy is bad everywhere in the world, so pc sales are tanking everywhere,
2. M1 and M2 are still very good CPUs, no need to upgrade to M3 very soon,
3. Relatively costly with meager starting 8/256 offer, compared to Windows/Linux/Chromebook/Samsung Dex offerings.
4. End of pandemic, gradual return to offices, computers bought in the pandemic era are still good,
5. iPhone and iPads with USB-C are becoming powerful enough to replace PC and Macs in some cases,
6. No AAA gaming on Macs yet
7. Newer OS versions do not offer anything substantial new,
8. Slow progress of M chips.

Generally, I think these are the factors, influencing the Mac sales right now.

 

[BadBuoy]

Or it's the fact that the global economy sucks and people just aren't spending the way they used to. We also have two wars waging in the world and now the US is sending troops to Israel and this is fast becoming World War III. The value of the US dollar is tanking. There are far more pressing concerns for people right now.

 

[brofkand]

I remember when Apple blamed Intel for things like this. Can't blame Intel now...

 

[Mark.g4]

I love apple,
for my needs it is the company that offers the best products, but there are also some aspects that I don't like:

1) Is Apple putting a lot of effort into product repairability and offering soldered SSDs?
How do I fix my MacBook or desktop Mac if SSD dies?

2) Exaggerated upgrade prices:
I can buy a 1TB NVME gen4 for around $50 on Amazon and they offer me a slow 256GB memory upgrade for over $200?
I don't like it.

 

[wanha]

I imagine most buyers are getting sick to the back teeth of being mugged off with the extortionate extra costs of choosing something other than decade-old memory and storage options. Made worse by the drop in read/write performance of a single 256GB chip vs. the parallelism of 512+

"Most buyers" don't have a clue about read/write performance

 

[iHorseHead]

I'm not sure but I think 8+256 base config in 2023 and insane upgrade cost will put some people off

Yup, I wanted a 16GB MBA but in my country I couldn't find it anywhere back in 2020, but I didn't want to go back to a random Windows PC, so I ordered a base model. Still happy with it though. But even for my base MBA I had to wait for weeks.

 

[Abazigal]

What likely happened is that the M1 transition set off a wave of upgrades. Now, the majority of users who are in the market for a new Mac have already gotten one, and they are good for the next couple of years. So the sales Apple is seeing now is coming mainly from upgrades (and it’s way too soon for most to upgrade from a 2020 MBA or 2021 MBP.

More or better upgrades will likely not see the boost to sales many people here are speculating. Nor are costly spec upgrades the reason either. The answer is something much more mundane. Macs are just that good and durable, so people don’t need to replace them every 2-3 years, and that’s actually a good thing.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

This doesn’t take into account the surge of MacBook sales throughout the C-19 pandemic; the whole industry is currently readjusting to pre-levels.