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Mac Shipments Down in Q1 2019 Amid Worldwide PC Decline
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I recall when IBM gave up the ship for laptops and desktops and all was set up to go for Lenevo. Lenevo in turn, stated very clearly their goal is to be the single largest seller of home computers. Look at the numbers. They have arrived. So, what is the problem with this? For every Apple not sold, the money is going into someone else's pocket and they are all competitors.
For whatever reason, seems Apple lost sight of the potential value of their own products and one of their more successful (yet misleading) promoted value - "eco system." This should have been (again opinion) further valued by making it more solid and extended an professional version that was designed for various pros in a fashion that made sense. Photoshop - more on Windows, various animation farms a mix of systems (including Linux), and so much more. If anything, even if Apple didn't make money they made massive good will and a great advertisement as hobbyists often emulate the "pros."
For whatever reason, seems Apple lost sight of the potential value of their own products and one of their more successful (yet misleading) promoted value - "eco system." This should have been (again opinion) further valued by making it more solid and extended an professional version that was designed for various pros in a fashion that made sense. Photoshop - more on Windows, various animation farms a mix of systems (including Linux), and so much more. If anything, even if Apple didn't make money they made massive good will and a great advertisement as hobbyists often emulate the "pros."
I sure hope so, because my wife had a ThinkPad E420 and it was a creaky, slow POS with a janky screen that had horrible color reproduction. I literally wanted to throw it down the driveway, but the driveway deserved better than that. So, yes, my experience is a few years old and may not be entirely objective.
Full disclosure, I used to provide end-user support to a small cadre of IBM ThinkPad users back in the mid-90s and we (the support staff) despised having to work on them, which we seemed to do...constantly. I suppose old habits die hard in the IT world. The same goes for Dell PERC RAID controllers, but I digress.
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Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
The problem is that what came before from Apple itself was SO much better.
If they'd taken the previous MBP and just added TB3 (without removing anything) and updated the chips and graphics it would have been fantastic.
But alas, every hardware release from them has been one step forward, three steps back.
The PC/Android side has been showing up Apple in what can be done in the hardware space, but Apple is going after that profit margin, first and foremost. Thinner bezels, a combination of ports, convertibles (I disagree regarding their usefulness...see iPad with keyboards), the Surface Studio (for crying out loud), the folding screens...
It's a doggone shame I have to watch a Samsung, Microsoft, or Huawei keynote to be "surprised and delighted" when every single one of those companies are using Steve Jobs' concepts and ideas as a springboard for their innovation.
Thunderbolt isn't proprietary. It's an open standard created by Intel in conjunction with Apple. You can buy Dell computers with it if you really want to.
- Reliability issues with notebook keyboard - a critical form factor Apple should be innovating and improving on, yet, keep delivering stuff a lot of users are not asking for.
- Too expensive - seriously, its 2019, Microsoft introduced a good enough graphical user interface back in Windows 3.0 in 1990, Windows Vista gave us photo realistic icons. OS X is not the crown jewel in world of iOS, Windows 10 and Android.
- Little value - 5400 RPM in 2019, heck no, I'll save my money instead and keep my machine longer.
- My current Mac is doing just what I need, yep, the niche 0.1% who need the the best are actually your achilles heal. Not everyone is MBKHD or works for a measure studio. There was a time Macs were considered for the rest of us, now unless you are a member of the Khardashians or celebrity, you have to save up to buy one. I can buy the latest and greatest, but, come on, you have 300 billion, pass on the value. The highest end MacBook Pro should cost no more that $1,500.
- We are keeping ours longer and squeezing as much value out of it. I see why not, its meeting my needs and I am still making really good earnings from it each week. I'll delay, delay, delay, delay till you give in.
- Too expensive - seriously, its 2019, Microsoft introduced a good enough graphical user interface back in Windows 3.0 in 1990, Windows Vista gave us photo realistic icons. OS X is not the crown jewel in world of iOS, Windows 10 and Android.
- Little value - 5400 RPM in 2019, heck no, I'll save my money instead and keep my machine longer.
- My current Mac is doing just what I need, yep, the niche 0.1% who need the the best are actually your achilles heal. Not everyone is MBKHD or works for a measure studio. There was a time Macs were considered for the rest of us, now unless you are a member of the Khardashians or celebrity, you have to save up to buy one. I can buy the latest and greatest, but, come on, you have 300 billion, pass on the value. The highest end MacBook Pro should cost no more that $1,500.
- We are keeping ours longer and squeezing as much value out of it. I see why not, its meeting my needs and I am still making really good earnings from it each week. I'll delay, delay, delay, delay till you give in.
Ahhh, you know this is all a bunch of guesses, right? It's a guess. You have a guess? That's about the same. They were usually way off when actual numbers were disclosed. OMG people. The other part - YAH. A lot less people will need to buy a computer. They already have one in their pocket.
The other news is that mobile computing didn’t exist like it does today. Do people honestly expect PC sales to not continually lose market share? The only people that care that Apple hasn’t upgraded the Mac Pro or any of their other offerings people on here complain about are the people on here, complaining. I’ve never met anyone in the real world, at jobs, undergrad, medical school, who cares about the minutia we debate about here.
Due to seasonality of Apple product releases, quarterly numbers do not translate well to annual numbers. The simple reality is that despite all the hype Apple market share basically has been around 5% for decades now. Nothing wrong with that but i think some people are concerned that with the recent price increases this share might decline.
my mom been asking me to find her a mbp to replace her aging 2013 mbp for ages now, but im still waiting for apple to get rid of that keyboard, chances are that will never happen lol
My tactic is pointing out Apple did better than the overall market and actually makes money on their computers. They actually increased prices and almost sold the same number of units in a declining market. Amazing execution.
As an older guy that’s seen technology come and go I gotta say, I don’t see much different now than what has always happened. Apple has always gotten rid of ports and standards to make way for new standards. Remember how freaked out people were about the removal of cd rom? No dvd drive? Omg! How will I load my software on that thing? What about if I wanna watch a dvd movie? Ahhhh. Then a couple years go by and the dust settles and it’s not even in the conversation anymore.
I use the third gen keyboard on my Air and love the feel of the keys. Everything feels more precise and well put together. Travel is just fine. There are keyboard failures and apple is fixing them. There have been some issues with every generation. So I’m not sure what apple is doing any differently today than they were years ago?
People cite price too and I just smh like “DO YOU REALIZE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT APPLE”. The company that has always had a small market share in pc BECAUSE they are so expensive and always have been?
What has Samsung and Microsoft unveiled in their keynotes in the past couple years that have gotten you all hot and bothered? Genuinely curious. As much as some people tout “wow touchscreens on laptops are cool” I have never once seen people swiping and poking at their laptop screens. They always revert to the trackpad.
Options are always great, but every time I see people saying apple has changed and is going downhill I cringe because it’s a profit driven computer company making computers. Same as it’s always been. I have my complaints, but I don’t revise history just to form the basis of those complaints
I’m seeing startups that used to be all on board with Mac laptops moving away to chromebooks and surface convertibles because of the keyboard failures. Wonder if Apple will take notice or just consider that evidence that they should stop investing in the Mac line?
i have an iphone and an ipad but i am a computer man. but it seems like the rest of the world or probably the current generation doesn’t like desktop computers anymore, they prefer their phones , ipads and watches, i think this is the main reason why desktop computer sales has decline, i have a hackintosh that i use for content creation and it can also be use as a gaming machine on the windows side, yes you can do many things with devices but there are some things that are just easier, better or faster on desktop pc
i use my ipad just as screen for my phantom 4 pro remote controller
the iphone is just for buisness or personal call etc but i honestly don’t like phones, most of the time i rather sent a text message, or put the phone on speaker, i really hate having to put the phone in my ear, i hate it
laptops don’t really like them very much, yes they are portable and there are some high performance laptops but like a said before, i’m a computer person because i like extreme performance and there are things that you can’t add or install on devices
i use my ipad just as screen for my phantom 4 pro remote controller
the iphone is just for buisness or personal call etc but i honestly don’t like phones, most of the time i rather sent a text message, or put the phone on speaker, i really hate having to put the phone in my ear, i hate it
laptops don’t really like them very much, yes they are portable and there are some high performance laptops but like a said before, i’m a computer person because i like extreme performance and there are things that you can’t add or install on devices
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Gartner predictions are always wrong - why companies waste money subscribing to them is beyond me.
the reason is obvious, people are just waiting for the mac pro
and they are tired of buying temporary replacements
we want a mac pro and we are not going to buy anything else untill we get a mac pro
i’m sure if apple reduce the prices , sales will go up but is not going to happen
mr greedy cook rather sale less but at outrageous price
apple doesn’t care about market share, they only care about profit
that’s why macs sales number has always been so low
and they are tired of buying temporary replacements
we want a mac pro and we are not going to buy anything else untill we get a mac pro
i’m sure if apple reduce the prices , sales will go up but is not going to happen
mr greedy cook rather sale less but at outrageous price
apple doesn’t care about market share, they only care about profit
that’s why macs sales number has always been so low
Fair point. It will be more interesting to see the official Apple number in 3 weeks. Why anyone wastes time with reports that estimate actually is beyond me too.
My thoughts exactly.
Solution Apple redesign 2016-2018 MBP ASAP. I love the design but KB issues is no longer a laughing matter and now it’s their killing joke.
Speaking of the MacBook then heavily so yes.
Back in 2000 I worked for a major test equipment manufacturer which made instruments to measure the optical power of different wavelengths in an optical fiber. They were difficult to build in large scale so when the dotcoms were booming they couldn’t make the instruments fast enough and shipments were delayed weeks and months. Then the dotcom bubble burst and they couldn’t sell the instruments anymore so the lead times went back down. The production manager’s response was “Good news, we caught up!”I think people are losing sight of what's really important here: every year the combined marketshare of all these computers has added up to a staggering one hundred percent! That's phenomenal! Go team!
They gained market share. They don't have to create a good product. Or an innovative product. Just a better product than the competition. If they gained market share, that means that enough consumers voted with their pocketbooks that they did exactly that.
If you don't like that, and think you know enough to do better, you can make your own computers, and see if you can sell enough of them to cover your time and expenses. Once upon a time, it worked for Mr. Dell.
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Yet they sold more than several companies that make far cheaper computers. Apple can double the price and still gain market share against the less expensive competition's products.
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There is nothing wrong with the current iMac other than the fact that it defaults to a hybrid drive, which is a shame. I plan to order one to replace my 2013 MBP, but I will get SSD.