Mac Revenue Down 34% Year-Over-Year, But Tim Cook Expects 'Significant' Improvement With M3 Macs

[MacRumors]

Apple today shared its earnings results for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2023 (third calendar quarter), and Mac revenue saw a major drop compared to last year.

Mac sales came in at $7.6 billion in Q4 2023, down 34 percent from $11.5 billion in the year-ago quarter. Mac revenue for all of 2023 was $29.4 billion, down from $40.2 billion in 2022.

Apple CFO Luca Maestri attributed the drop to challenging market conditions and challenging compares to last year's Mac lineup. Because of supply chain issues during the June 2022 quarter, Mac sales spiked in the September 2022 quarter, which did not happen this year. Apple also updated the MacBook Air in June 2023 rather than September, which impacted September quarter sales compared to last year.

Apple did release new M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max Macs in late October, but sales of those devices will be reflected in the December quarter. Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that he expects Mac performance to improve over the holidays.

"I think the Mac is going to have a significantly better quarter in the December quarter," said Cook. "We've got the M3, we've got the new products, and we don't have the compare phenomenon on a year-over-year basis," Cook said.

Apple began allowing customers to purchase the new M3 Macs on Monday, with shipments to begin arriving next week. Apple appears to have plenty of supply of the new models, so there should be no supply constraints during the upcoming holidays.

Article Link: Mac Revenue Down 34% Year-Over-Year, But Tim Cook Expects 'Significant' Improvement With M3 Macs

 

[abatabia]

The M1 series were just too good.

 

[andrewxgx]

yea, i'm sure people are lining up to buy M3 Pro downgrade

 

[Eracles]

I'm going to buy a m3 mac soon, because i need it to replace a very old intel mac of more than 10 years

 

[mrat93]

Unless the M3 MBA has any of the following…

1. Cheaper storage upgrades
2. Cheaper RAM upgrades
3. 120hz screen

… Then I’ll likely buy a used M2 model once the M3 Airs are announced. Sorry, Tim.

 

[CheesePuff]

Lol and that's why there was an event for what would normally always have been a press release

 

[daneoni]

Its also the pricing. I know inflation exists but still, these things are becoming somewhat pricey...especially when you start upgrading RAM and storage.

Entry-level pricing is meaningless when you have Macs shipping with the same amount of RAM as an iPhone...in 2023.

Its kinda telling that after the M3 updates were announced, pretty much all the M2 MBPs in the refurb store that i'd seen earlier had disappeared. Buyers likely opted for those instead.

With Apple Silicon, Mac upgrades may become similar to iPad upgrades unlike the Intel era. You buy a new one if the old one dies or is no longer getting updates. And then sell a kidney to pay for it.

 

[Tuck_]

I'm skeptical. The prices are very high, the upsells are aggressive and I'm not sure the value proposition is strong enough because of that.

They'll do well, obviously. But enough to stop the downtrend? Not sure about that.

 

[mortenb]

Not sure M3 will save sales. Still on M1 Mac Mini and M1 MBA and they are more than powerful enough already... need something more exciting than CPU upgrades.

Of course a new computer is always nice, but the total prices including needed RAM and drive upgrades are insane.

 

[cicalinarrot]

Same pathetic RAM and small SSDs, now that a terabyte on a PC costs $40, barely a color to make them look different, M1 processors are still great for 95% of owners… I hope Tim doesn’t truly believe that.

 

[MacFan782040]

Apple might need to re-evaluate their trade-in program for Mac - if they run it more like the iPhone - people may buy Macs more often. Otherwise, these machines are good for at least 5-7 years.

 

[MrENGLISH]

The M1 series were just too good.

I'd happily upgrade my 32GB M1 Max to the 48GB or 64GB M3 Max but their pricing is just ridiculous and forcing me to hold unto my M1 Max longer.

 

[Darren.h]

coming out with a $500 MacBook will solve everything.

make good use of all hose unused M2 chips.

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

I actually ordered an M3 Pro MBP to upgrade from my M1 Pro MBP. Canceled it as soon as the cores and memory bandwidth issues came to light.

Clear that the only winning upgrade from M1-family is a machine with a Max chip. I'd rather hang on to my M1 MBP and get a M3 Max chip inside of something more economical, like a Mac Studio.

 

[mabaker]

For more money savings Apple would abandon Macs altogether. Anything for those sweet margins.

 

[scrapesleon]

People don’t replace their MacBook often like a phone get a grip

 

[WarmWinterHat]

For intel users, yes, but as for other M-chip owners, I'm not so sure...

Personally, I'm not even going to consider another Mac until the M5, at the earliest. My M1 Air still does absolutely everything I want it to do, and just as fast as the day I bought it.

i don't think so, Tim.

 

[xbjllb]

Waiting for my maxxed out M3 Mac Pro. Actually, two of them.

And the new 7k ProDisplay XDR.... two of them too.

Lemme know when you want my money Apple.

 

[picpicmac]

For some context (!! context - what's that ??), here is global data from Statista on quarterly personal computer sales globally:

 

[ralph_sws]

Not with these RAM and SSD prices.

 

[BuddyTronic]

Apple today shared its earnings results for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2023 (third calendar quarter), and Mac revenue saw a major drop compared to last year.

Mac sales came in at $7.6 billion in Q4 2023, down 34 percent from $11.5 billion in the year-ago quarter. Mac revenue for all of 2023 was $29.4 billion, down from $40.2 billion in 2022.

Apple CFO Luca Maestri attributed the drop to challenging market conditions and challenging compares to last year's Mac lineup. Because of supply chain issues during the June 2022 quarter, Mac sales spiked in the September 2022 quarter, which did not happen this year. Apple also updated the MacBook Air in June 2023 rather than September, which impacted September quarter sales compared to last year.

Apple did release new M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max Macs in late October, but sales of those devices will be reflected in the December quarter. Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that he expects Mac performance to improve over the holidays.

"I think the Mac is going to have a significantly better quarter in the December quarter," said Cook. "We've got the M3, we've got the new products, and we don't have the compare phenomenon on a year-over-year basis," Cook said.

Apple began allowing customers to purchase the new M3 Macs on Monday, with shipments to begin arriving next week. Apple appears to have plenty of supply of the new models, so there should be no supply constraints during the upcoming holidays.

Article Link: Mac Revenue Down 34% Year-Over-Year, But Tim Cook Expects 'Significant' Improvement With M3 Macs

It’s not very significant information - Mac sales spike when new models are released.

 

[Mazda 3s]

I have a 14-inch base MacBook Pro with M1 Pro/16GB/512GB.

I would be inclined to upgrade, but the storage and RAM upgrades are ridiculously priced. I get it, everything is integrated on-chip, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow.

I added a 1TB Crucial PCIe 4.0 SSD to my Intel NUC media server for around $50 shipped from Amazon. Apple’s pricing for upgrades just makes my head spin.

 

[nvmls]

Yea Timmey has all faith in their latest nickel and diming tactics.

 

[andrewxgx]

I actually ordered an M3 Pro MBP to upgrade from my M1 Pro MBP. Canceled it as soon as the cores and memory bandwidth issues came to light.

Clear that the only winning upgrade from M1-family is a machine with a Max chip. I'd rather hang on to my M1 MBP and get a M3 Max chip inside of something more economical, like a Mac Studio.

congrats with the upsell model, Tim

 

[jhowarth]

I swapped out my 2017 i5-2.3GHz 16GB/256GB MacBook Pro (which still had $225 in trade in value) for an educational discounted 2020 16GB/256GB 2020 M1 MacBook Air last month. I would have paid twice as much to get a M3 16GB MacBook Pro. Apple really bungled in not bumping the base M3 model to at least 12GB.