Mac Shipments Continue to Rise Amid Surge in Demand for PCs [Updated]

[MacRumors]

Shipments of Macs increased by almost 10 percent in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the same time last year, as the surge in demand for computers continued, according to IDC data.

The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker shows that worldwide shipments of personal computers, including desktops, notebooks, and workstations, reached 83.6 million units in the second quarter of 2021. This is an increase of 13.2 percent from the second quarter of 2020, in spite of component shortages across the industry that constrained supply.

IDC analysis noted that while annual growth remains high, it has begun to taper off as the 13 percent growth rate in the second quarter of 2021 is far lower than the 55.9 percent growth in the first quarter of 2021 and 25.8 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2020. Neha Mahajan, senior research analyst with IDC’s Devices and Displays Group, commented:

The market faces mixed signals as far as demand is concerned With businesses opening back up, demand potential in the commercial segment appears promising. However, there are also early indicators of consumer demand slowing down as people shift spending priorities after nearly a year of aggressive PC buying."

Apple remained the fourth-largest PC vendor, tied with Acer, surpassed only by Lenovo, HP, and Dell, of which each had over double the number of shipments compared to Apple.

Apple does not disclose exact Mac shipment figures, meaning that the data provided by IDC is estimated. An equivalent report from Canalys placed Apple's annual growth at 19.8 percent, but showed shipment estimates in a similar range.

Apple's fiscal second quarter earnings call showed steady growth of Mac revenue broadly in line with IDC's estimates, but Apple has not yet reported on this period. Apple is set to hold its third quarter earnings call on July 27.

Update: Gartner has also shared its PC and Mac shipment estimates for the second quarter of 2021. According to Gartner's data, Apple sold six million Macs worldwide during the quarter, up from five million in in the year-ago quarter for an increase of 19.7 percent.

In the U.S., Apple sold an estimated 2.4 million Macs, up from 2.3 in the year-ago quarter for a 4.4 percent increase.

Article Link: Mac Shipments Continue to Rise Amid Surge in Demand for PCs [Updated]

 

[jav6454]

Not surprisin given the need for remote work/study

 

[barkomatic]

My organization hasn't made a decision about whether or not remote work will be permanent or not, but if I'm even partially remote I'm going to be needing a new macbook pro soon. Holding out for the new models in Oct/Nov

 

[Lemon Olive]

And this is in spite of the fact that every professional user has been in a watch and wait stance for a year, until a pro-grade Mac with Apple Silicon ships.

 

[0924487]

This is temporary, it will drop in the subsequent years as the combination of remote work and M1 super cycle pass.

Apple is "borrowing" future purchasing capacities.

 

[CarpalMac]

Doing our bit, two airs and a mini here.
With the M1 processors I just couldn't consider anything else, had been eyeing up an XPS 13.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

M1, M1X and M2 will be a game changer and will take Apple to its new heights.

 

[Mr. Dee]

I didn’t buy my M1 MacBook Pro for work at home, just bought it because my 2015 13 inch was starting to get a little slow and I wanted something new. My company sent me home with a Core 2 Duo Dell Optiplex, which use their LOB web based app. It did everything I need for work. But after 9.3 hours sitting in front of it, my M1 was a breath of fresh air in the evenings.

I must say though my iPad still gets the lions share of my computing. Typing this comment on right now in bed.

 

[npmacuser5]

Best move by Apple, making own chips. Differentiates their products, allows them more control to build the products we all buy. I just received my M1 Macbook Air 512. First impressions, very nicely done Apple.

 

[arvinsim]

M1 Macbook Air is simply the best bang-for-buck laptop...if you can afford it.

 

[skaertus]

Apple grew 9.4%, which is below the market average of 13.2%. Apple's market share was actually down to 7.4% from 7.6% in the same period last year. While Apple is benefitting from a surge in overall PC shipments, performance is not great compared to other manufacturers, despite the impact that the M1 should have made.

 

[jav6454]

Apple grew 9.4%, which is below the market average of 13.2%. Apple's market share was actually down to 7.4% from 7.6% in the same period last year. While Apple is benefitting from a surge in overall PC shipments, performance is not great compared to other manufacturers, despite the impact that the M1 should have made.

Remember that people during a pandemic had to manage their finances a bit more stringently than usual. That means a $1200 computer might look bad financially vs a $800 computer that in the immediate time frame will perform equally for its intended purpose (remote work/learning).

 

[Bonte]

A 10% rise is lower than the 13% market average so there is a lot of headroom for the M1x. I bought a Mac Mini M1 already and loving it, can't wait for the M1x as I need a second machine

 

[R.T.J.]

My older sister is like my archenemy, she always goes against everything I am. I always use macs and she used to use PCs until for some reason she ended up getting a MB Air... she never went back to PC again.

PCs are amazing if you know your way around things and like to be fixing a computer and a system all the time. But Macs are just plug and play mostly, the time you save instead of having to fix that PC over and over again (and I am talking about buggy Windows) is unbearable.

I have 4 PCs that I use for playback in concerts and AV installations. They are cheap and they do the job as long you run just one thing at a time.

So I believe that if you are going to work from home and you do not have an IT around... get a Mac.

 

[radus]

Apple grew 9.4%, which is below the market average of 13.2%. Apple's market share was actually down to 7.4% from 7.6% in the same period last year. While Apple is benefitting from a surge in overall PC shipments, performance is not great compared to other manufacturers, despite the impact that the M1 should have made.

In doubt people choose windows over mac os. Windows is by far more innovative, stable and productive as mac os.
The M1 hardware offers a lot of advantages but without adequate software esp. windows compatibility it is not a good competitor. Look for voice recognition and eye-tracking, even office-software.

 

[ghanwani]

I expect this to accelerate as people have started to upgrade early and often.

Look at the number of folks that upgraded a 2018/2019 MBA for an M1 MBA. When the next MBA shows up, we'll see similar upgrades.

I think Apple would benefit even more if they paid better attention to quality control and made sure their displays were flicker-free.

 

[ajfahey]

Apple grew 9.4%, which is below the market average of 13.2%. Apple's market share was actually down to 7.4% from 7.6% in the same period last year. While Apple is benefitting from a surge in overall PC shipments, performance is not great compared to other manufacturers, despite the impact that the M1 should have made.

I need a replacement for my 2016 MBP. I tried using my wife’s 13“ MBP but the screen size is just too small for travel work and I am far more productive using a 2 Monitor home setup that her computer is incapable of supporting. TB expansion ports are also an issue as is the existing 16MB RAM limit. In short, I am waiting for an M1X with all of the above M1 deficiencies corrected. I suspect most business oriented users are in a similar position so half or more if Apples’s sales potential remains on the sidelines for the end of the year releases.

 

[ajfahey]

In doubt people choose windows over mac os. Windows is by far more innovative, stable and productive as mac os.
The M1 hardware offers a lot of advantages but without adequate software esp. windows compatibility it is not a good competitor. Look for voice recognition and eye-tracking, even office-software.

Windows has not been truly innovative in since Windows 3.1 and even then they were copying the Mac Graphics user interface. MS DOS still lurks beneath the surface of Windows 10 to this day.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Glad to see this. I hope we see more Windows people coming to Mac this yea, especially with the release in the Fall.

 

[jicon]

Apple grew 9.4%, which is below the market average of 13.2%. Apple's market share was actually down to 7.4% from 7.6% in the same period last year. While Apple is benefitting from a surge in overall PC shipments, performance is not great compared to other manufacturers, despite the impact that the M1 should have made.

Price I'm sure factors in to this, with job losses, and inflation rising somewhat. The other factor I think is switch to new processors. Surely there are a sizable faction of individuals waiting for the next chipset iteration, allowing time for developers to port more apps, and motherboard/chip performance to mature? Rule #1 with Apple, avoid Rev A products.

 

[ghanwani]

Glad to see this. I hope we see more Windows people coming to Mac this yea, especially with the release in the Fall.

Apple grew less than the market (9.4% vs 13.2%), so it doesn't look like many Windows users are switching. If at all, the statistics show things are going the other way.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Apple grew less than the market (9.4% vs 13.2%), so it doesn't look like many Windows users are switching. If at all, the statistics show things are going the other way.

Thanks for the stats. Do you think it will change with the release of Parallels? I don't use Windows but it would be great to see the stats change for the better.

 

[jicon]

Windows has not been truly innovative in since Windows 3.1 and even then they were copying the Mac Graphics user interface. MS DOS still lurks beneath the surface of Windows 10 to this day.

Come on. I'd say desktop/laptop computing has been fairly stagnant for everyone for some time. But, multitasking from Win 3.1 days has come a long way, with near zero kernel crashes. The move to improve memory availability has made great strides for a lot of software. Direct X some twenty years ago did plenty to help drive video card performance well higher than ever possible on MacOS. Do you know what lurks beneath the surface of Mac OS? Give that ol' command line a run.

 

[ghanwani]

Thanks for the stats. Do you think it will change with the release of Parallels? I don't use Windows but it would be great to see the stats change for the better.

My gut feeling is that a lot of sales are being driven by companies and the ones that offer both macs and pcs are far and few. Most will officially support windows only in order to streamline IT operations.

 

[NotTooLate]

Apple grew less than the market (9.4% vs 13.2%), so it doesn't look like many Windows users are switching. If at all, the statistics show things are going the other way.

How did you deduced that "statistics show things are going the other way" ? nothing in the data shows windows users switching nor mac users switching.....