Mac Shipments Down in Q1 2019 Amid Worldwide PC Decline

[Zdigital2015]

I haven’t shopped for a PC for the longest time. What makes Lenovo good here on the worldwide chart, just cheap systems?

Yes...Lenovo’s are still crap, no matter how much PC Magazine talks them up.

 

[Ghost31]

None.
But they chose to offer some in form of butterfly keyboard and gimmicky touch bar.

yeah well I'm just some idiot on the internet but i'm kinda stumped on what apple could be doing right now besides making stuff cheaper and more accessible. I have and love my 2018 MacBook Air. No problems with the keyboard, Touch ID works great, screen is fine. The whole thing was just priced a couple hundred bucks too high.

What else are we looking to do with laptops anyway? We've kinda peaked haven't we? Its just the same form factor with faster processors and better screens. Windows is trying convertibles which are practically useless and niche, touchscreens which on a laptop doesn't work great and...what else? Please. I'm asking anyone to list something besides "keyboards and Touch Bar". If apple got rid of Touch Bar tomorrow, people would still call apple not innovative. Same with the keyboards.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

We can beg for an upgradable Mac all we want, but I think Apple knows most of their customers won’t open their machines again once they are purchased, and declining sales are just the reality of the industry, making the incentive to push this market with upgradable designs less appealing. I like computers a lot, but I have no need for more than one Mac, and my 2017 5K is more than I’ll need for years to come.

I haven’t shopped for a PC for the longest time. What makes Lenovo good here on the worldwide chart, just cheap systems?

Lenovo and HP both get a lot of corporate contracts. They build proper dockable laptops with decent support—basically being one-stop shops for IT departments running Windows/Office.

 

[radio893fm]

Or the entire market declined 4.6% and Apple declined less, while increasing market share.

Don't you feel tired trying to justify, apologize, defend, etc, Apple in every post?

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Millions of professional journalists, authors, office workers around the world using the keyboards without a problem but some forum warriors have somehow forgotten how to type because of a 1mm difference.

Can't complain about a keyboard when you are using that keyboard to post hundreds of messages on a forum

Computer shipments go down sometimes. Means nothing. A dozen years ago there was an LCD shortage and some people online acted like the world was going to end.

The world is going to keep upgrading and moving forward over the long term.

 

[Zdigital2015]

I’m in the market for a new Mac. Mine is from 2010, iMac 27”. I’ve upgeaded to ssd but it’s time to upgrade.
Looking at the apple store is despressing as all hell. They do not make any Mac that is what I want. I could settle for a Mac mini, it’ll be powerful enough for what I want it for, but the Mac mini is WAAY too expensive, misawell get a damn intel NUC for $400.

I have the cash, apple. But I’m not going to waste it on a **** deal

An Intel NUC is still going to get you to cough up a $1000 before you get it all kitted out and a genuine Windows license key on it, unless you are going Linux and New Egg Shell Shocker Deals for the remaining components.

 

[hans1972]

It's priced beyond reach for most who expect a decent configuration..

And yet Apple increased market share both worldwide and in the US according to Gartner.

 

[macmyworld]

Hard to believe sales aren’t taking off. Expensive laptop with a crappy keyboard. What isn’t to love?

 

[hans1972]

I 100% agree. Apple has priced itself out of the market. Only those who work at Apple's headquarters can afford them (and the 1%ers).

And yet, this very article states that 13% of personal computer buyers in the US could afford a Mac. And they even increased market share.

 

[mlody]

I haven’t shopped for a PC for the longest time. What makes Lenovo good here on the worldwide chart, just cheap systems?

I am all mac/ios at home including my family and kids; however at work i have a choice. Been using several lenovos t430, t460 and then switched to pretty much loaded macbook pro 15 2018. I could not last most then 2 weeks with it and ditched the system in favor of lenovo x1 extreme. Part of it was seamless windows integration that mac wasn't able to provide me, part of it was hardware; starting with crappy keyboard, annoyingly huge trackpad, lack of usable ports and reliable and stable docking solution, water down multi monitor support and many other annoyances that drove me nuts.

I am perfectly happy with my macs at home, and so is my family but making mac to nicely play with windows active directory, and microsoft in general is an impossible task unless you either run it as a bootcamp or virtual machine - at that point might as well use windows.

 

[GuruZac]

The most important metric is Apple hasn’t lost market share. I’m actually surprised at Apple price points, they are ahead of Asus and Acer.

 

[TMRJIJ]

My Late 2013 MBP runs great. Apple screwed up big time when they decided to make these devices last long.

 

[yurc]

Mac Pro (outdated 2013 trashcan) : GPU stuck
MBP : Butterfly keyboard, flex cable misery
Mac Mini : Lose it's purpose as entry gate into Apple ecosystem with current price tag
iMac : 5400 rpm spinning HDD in 2019...okay
iMac Pro : Quite OK for buying time as Mac Pro absent, but not everyone taste

No wonder Mac sales continue to decline.

 

[azentropy]

Apple keeps taking away as many things as they add. For example they finally bring a quad-core option to the 13” MBP but in order to get it I have to switch to a flaky keyboard, I lose my function keys for the gimmicky Touch Bar and I have to start carrying around multiple dongles since they removed ports and slots that I still require. On top of that I’d get to pay $2K (to get 16gb of RAM version which I also need). Just not worth it.

 

[Baymowe335]

And three companies actually increased both sales (6.9, 0.8 and 1.5 percent) and market share (1.4, 1.2 and 1.6 percentage points). So you they did less bad than the bottom players. But any attempt to paint this as good is delusional.

Yeah, and made 2% margins. What’s your point?

You think Apple wants to be Dell or HP? LOL!!

 

[bladerunner2000]

They haven't done anything in like 8 years... so

They've raised prices though!

 

[Baymowe335]

Don't you feel tired trying to justify, apologize, defend, etc, Apple in every post?

No, because it’s easy to point out the facts when people ignore what’s right in front of them. People have a hard time thinking critically. All this data helps me keep up with the company I own, so it’s kind of like working.

 

[hans1972]

I love the spin job here.



This statement (and the headline) couples Apple's decline with the overall industry decline. Fine. But then buries (4th paragraph) the fact that three companies actually increased sales (even downplaying one of those to "remain steady" because, well I guess the number was positive but less than 1.0...or something).

And both Lenovo and HP lost market share from the previous quarter.

You need to look at more than one YoY comparison. One reason why Lenovo had such a large increase may be due to the inclusion of Fujistu PC division in may 2018. I am not entirely sure how Gartner handled that in their numbers.

 

[ilikewhey]

I blame SSD's and lack of CPU/Battery progression.

For desktop users, there has been little reason to upgrade over the last decade provided your computer has an SSD. For the majority of the population, even a 1st gen i7 CPU has enough power to run word, browse facebook or watch a youtube video (as long as you have a decent enough GPU)

Laptop sales weren't affected as much. While new processors offered incremental raw performance increases, they did offer significantly reduced power consumption, which means longer run times and less heat, which also means less cooling needed which made for thinner and lighter laptops.

Fast forward to today and we have very marginal performance gains as well as power consumption reduction. Combine that with Apple's asking price and it's no shocker that sales are dropping.

1st generation i7 can still play triple AAA titles at a decent fps, my i7 920 was still chugging along far cry 4 last time i checked.

 

[falainber]

The most important metric is Apple hasn’t lost market share. I’m actually surprised at Apple price points, they are ahead of Asus and Acer.

They lost profits. The only reason they did not lose market share is because other losers lost even more (in sales). The big picture is that in 1996 Apple market share of PC market was 5.9%. It's 6.8% today.

 

[hans1972]

Don't you feel tired trying to justify, apologize, defend, etc, Apple in every post?

Here is Apple market share according to gartner:

Q1 17: 6.7%
Q2 17: 7.0%
Q3 17: 8.0%
Q4 17: 7.1%
Q1 18: 6.6%
Q2 18: 7.1%
Q3 18: 7.3%
Q4 18: 7.2%

Q1 19: 6.8%

There is nothing unusual about the market share for Apple for this quarter. It is not bad and is not really good either. It is just normal.

 

[44267547]

Yes...Lenovo’s are still crap

Why? Aside from the branding, their quality has improved exponentially over the last three years.

 

[Bin Cook]

Make it crap and double the price, then wonder why sales are down? That’s the genius of Tim Cook.

 

[hans1972]

They lost profits. The only reason they did not lose market share is because other losers lost even more (in sales). The big picture is that in 1996 Apple market share of PC market was 5.9%. It's 6.8% today.

The big picture is that Mac market share was 4.5% in 2011 when Steve Jobs ruled.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...en_taking_4_5_of_pc_sales_in_2011_5_2_in_2015

After Tim Cook took over it has increased to be upwards of 7-8% in some quarters.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

No kidding, Sherlock/s

But it is not only the keyboard, although it is the most offensive and visible of all.

Queue the litany of "new-generation fixes" (which did not need fixing)...

1. of course, keyboard (with or without "improved" key condoms)
2. magsafe, where are you? we miss you!
3. proprietary thunderbolt 1,2,3 .. the port to rule them all ... not! (USB 3.1 Gen2 compatibility is the saving grace)
4. mega-sized touchpad (with imperfect palm rejection)
5. T2 firmware with built-in "failure as an option"
6. touch bar that no one asked, but all have to pay
7. minimal, fixed storage configurations as entry level, with super-sized pricing for useful ones.
8. built as a disposable appliance where any reasonable repair (e.g. battery!) demands system overhaul and sub-system replacement (top aluminum case replaced with keyboard, speakers, and battery as a single sub-system)
9. adding insult to injury, no "Right-to-Repair", with no repair manuals and/or OEM replacement parts available to third parties.
10. and, of course, Cook's spreadsheet where options are all priced by powers-of-2, regardless of technology trends.

So why bother?
Simple, macOS.
But that distinction is fading away... fast.

I've been holding on to 2011 hardware because of my absolute LOVE of the Mac OS, but the moment my machines die I may have to jump the Apple ship completely, having already made the move to Android.

So I'm stuck waiting for compelling hardware from either side...but Windows hardware is getting closer to my want target while Apple moves further and further away.

Never thought I'd see the day.