Mac Shipments Estimated to Be Down Over 20% While Demand Surges in Q1 2020

[Zdigital2015]

Maybe if Apple actually updated its desktop computers on a regular basis instead of once every 10 years, more people might be interested in buying. But since over 80% of Apple's revenue comes from mobile products, why would they care? Apple has been killing the desktop Mac for years.

Desktop computers are not what sells in the year 2020...you’re still living in the 1990’s. Good luck with that. Plus, basic math seems to be elusive.

iMac updates or refreshes - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019.

Mac mini - 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2018.

Mac Pro - 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2019.

No 10 year gaps and the gaps lengthened a bit for the least popular, lowest selling desktops Macs, while the most popular desktop Mac got updated at a very rapid and consistent pace.

Mobile makes the money, but that’s been true since 2002. Also, Apple hasn’t crapped out desktop product since SJ took over in 1996, when we got an just iMac and the G3 and that was it. Are you actually waxing nostalgic for the days of Centris, Quadra, Performa, LC? Nobody wants that anymore. You should go buy a Dell if that’s what you want or build a time machine.

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

I am looking forward to the new keyboard for my iPad Pro next month. Love to see how that will work. Seen some demo videos and very interested on how this keyboard with trackpad will make the iPad like a MacBook.

i don’t like that kind of Marketing Statements. The keyboard is the same as the OS. Nothing really changed. Little bit of trackpad support for better cursor placement. Irritation between trackpad and finger to operate apps.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Apple, just offer me a Mac mini or MacBook Pro with a Nvidia RTX GPU and CUDA for a reasonable price and I'll gladly buy it.

NVIDIA support is dead and buried, never to return. Apple made this crystal clear once Mojave was released, if not before with High Sierra.

 

[PostApple2016BrainWash]

- They refuse to keep the lineup updated
- Let old stuff like iMac's wither on the vine
- Overpriced
- Reduced benefits (buying a Mac as a student in the past would give 3 years of Apple care)
- Increased competition from the likes of Dell who've really done a great job with the XPS line

Not all of this stuff is Apple's fault, Intel has been a cluster of failure in recent years. But even ignoring dated designs like the iMac with its' giant bezels, they seem to release big updates which push things forward then spend years acting like the product doesn't exist.

Also a 720p FaceTime camera in 2020 on a MacBook Pro should have resulted in an executive getting fired.

It's not rocket science, update the devices with the latest silicon. Then when designs start getting dated like the iMac, do a refreshed design. Still no 802.11ax on the latest iMac when the iPhone and iPad have it.

Well said, that's why supply chain guy doesn't seem to be the right person to supervise the whole operation. Apple can't get most of its product right and lots of compromised in design and form factor and M.2 connector is a more favorable choice in the MacBook Pro lineup that can be repairable with the user-replaceable part without any concern of reliability issues and adding MagSafe 2 back will be a no brainer.

 

[chucker23n1]

I wonder if someone has noticed you can't buy a new Mac without the Catalina train wreck inciuded?

People seem to be wildly exaggerating the problems at this point. This 2013 MBP shipped with 10.9 Mojave, and has seen ups and downs in terms of OS reliability. Catalina certainly isn't an "up", but I can get my work done…

 

[Westside guy]

It's always funny when a bunch of people start making comments which are completely orthogonal to a posted item.

I share many people's feelings regarding Apple's pricing and slow hardware update cycle... but that's irrelevant to this particular story. If you actually read it - this is a supply-side problem caused by the COVID-19 situation. Demand for computers (from Apple and other manufacturers) is actually UP, for the same reason.

 

[benlukes]

The fix is pretty easy tbh. Drop prices and the sales will increase, but what Apple like to do is increase prices anyways, which is a bummer. I am in to buy a new MPB 16 or iMac, but right now I am holding back my order.

if they would just drop the prices for RAM and SSD upgrades to match the market price I would buy a MBP right now. Or, alternatively and preferably, make these items user-upgradable, but I don’t see that happening.

One of the main problems I have with their current laptops is that they are disposable. That’s fine for a consumer product, but not for a pro one.
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Right. Apple is welcome to cede the pro laptop and desktop market, but just means their customers move to Windows, Linux, or ChromeOS.

Is there a good way to have a Mac virtual machine on a Windows computer?

 

[chucker23n1]

Is there a good way to have a Mac virtual machine on a Windows computer?

Not legally.

It's not possible to buy a macOS license.

 

[benlukes]

Dumb question maybe, but how can sales be down but demand be up? How are they measuring demand if not by sales?
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Not legally.

It's not possible to buy a macOS license.

Doesn’t a MacOS license come with the computer I already have? In any case, I frankly don’t care if it’s legal as long as I can do it without too much trouble. Most things I could do on Windows just fine, but it would be nice to be able to run MacOS for some things.

If I wanted to do the opposite (run a Windows virtual machine on a Mac) there are plenty of options.

 

[benlukes]

It's always funny when a bunch of people start making comments which are completely orthogonal to a posted item.

I share many people's feelings regarding Apple's pricing and slow hardware update cycle... but that's irrelevant to this particular story. If you actually read it - this is a supply-side problem caused by the COVID-19 situation. Demand for computers (from Apple and other manufacturers) is actually UP, for the same reason.

I’m not sure the article provides enough evidence that that is the case. We know Mac shipments are down 21%, but I don’t think we can say for certain why. If it were a supply issue alone, why would Mac shipments be down 21% while other manufacturers are down less than 8% overall? Aren’t the other computers manufactured in China as well?

 

[Freeangel1]

does not surprise me. enough said

Happy Easter Everyone! Happy Passover to my Jewish Friends.

 

[chucker23n1]

Doesn’t a MacOS license come with the computer I already have?

Yes. You can virtually legalize macOS on a Mac. (Even if the host OS on that Mac isn't macOS. So you can run VMware ESX on it, and make macOS one of the guests.)

If I wanted to do the opposite (run a Windows virtual machine on a Mac) there are plenty of options.

Yes, because Microsoft sells Windows.

 

[JoelTheSuperior]

I recently bought a new desktop and I was genuinely toying with the idea of buying an iMac.

In the end I went for a PC I built myself for the following reasons:

1. Price. Apple's prices aren't even remotely competitive, especially now that AMD are offering some serious competition. Apple's BTO prices are downright insulting. £600 for 32GB of 2666MHz DDR4 is just utterly ridiculous when a 3200MHz set is £138 on Amazon.
2. AMD. Really all I need to say - Intel hasn't offered any serious upgrades to their processors in a few years now, meanwhile AMD are offering 12 and 16 core CPUs for not much more than Intel's 8 core offering, with lower power consumption and heat output. Intel simply aren't competitive right now.
3. Upgradeability. Being able to just replace the graphics card, processor, RAM, whatever, as needed is a huge deal to me. Being able to replace the display without replacing the entire system is also pretty awesome. Need more storage? Just add more internal drives. Doing this with a Mac requires a ton of external enclosures, gets messy quite quickly.
4. Support. Apple's support, in my experience, simply isn't very good. It's not terrible, but I wouldn't say it's good either. Being without my MacBook for a week because the keyboard doesn't work sucks. I can buy a new one and return it when the original is fixed, but that's really my only option. Meanwhile on my PC, if a component goes bad I just replace the component myself. Apple won't sell me components for Macs for any amount of money.
5. Windows 10. I've never been a huge fan of Windows. Actually I've been a very vocal critic, but the truth is Windows genuinely is a lot better than it used to be. The Linux subsytem is genuinely awesome, and dev work that I used to think would be impossible on a PC now isn't an issue at all.
6. macOS Catalina. I have to be honest, as much as I hate to be one of those who complains about Catalina, because it's rarely as bad as its made out to be, the OS has been problematic for me. Bizarre bugs and issues that simply shouldn't happen, along with other annoyances. macOS still has focus stealing, which annoys the hell out of me. A hell of a lot of my old software is now unsupported, with no way to get it to run.
7. Games / Software Support. I'm not much of a gamer, but it's genuinely awesome to have access to such a huge catalogue of AAA games. Software as well is a big one here - Apple routinely breaks support for legacy software, yet on Windows I can find an app from 10 years ago and not have to worry about whether it'll work with my system, it almost certainly will.

The worst part out of all of this, is that I'm now genuinely considering getting a PC laptop as well, because honestly, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I genuinely am starting to like Windows.

 

[macduke]

I’m having trouble finding good jigsaw puzzles in stock.

Also I want them to update the 16” MBP or release a decently spec’d 14” model.

 

[benlukes]

Yes. You can virtually legalize macOS on a Mac. (Even if the host OS on that Mac isn't macOS. So you can run VMware ESX on it, and make macOS one of the guests.)



Yes, because Microsoft sells Windows.

My point is that I want to run MacOS (in a virtual environment is fine) on a PC, because I can't stomach the idea of buying a laptop that I can't upgrade myself, at the very least at the absurd prices Apple want's to change for upgrades.

 

[chucker23n1]

My point is that I want to run MacOS (in a virtual environment is fine) on a PC, because I can't stomach the idea of buying a laptop that I can't upgrade myself, at the very least at the absurd prices Apple want's to change for upgrades.

Yes, and mine is that if you want to do so, the only way to go about it is to pirate macOS, which… be my guest?

 

[Freeangel1]

time to bring back the Mac commercials !!

 

[sirozha]

I think the bigger question is what happened to the iPhone demand. It’s immaterial for the Apple bottom line if they sold 21% fewer Macs. However, a 21% drop in iPhone sales is significant. The reality is probably much worse than that. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold 50% fewer phones if not in the first quarter, then in the second quarter.

Nothing prevents people from holding onto their existing phones for an extra year or two while they are facing salary reductions, furloughs, and likely layoffs.

As for the demand for non-Mac computers vs the demand for Mac computers, if I had four kids all taking distance learning school and I only had one extra Mac at home, I wouldn’t go and buy three more Macs so that my kids could attend school from home. I would buy three Chromebooks for $250 each or three Windows laptops for $300 each. If the school districts take it upon themselves to equip kids with a device suitable for distance learning, 99% of them will buy Chromebooks or Windows laptops and not Macs. Apple has let education down a long time ago. Apple has no distance learning platform, no web conferencing platform, and no affordable computing platform suitable for distance learning. Now contrast this with Google that has Google Classroom, Google Meet (video conferencing), and Chromebooks or contrast it with Microsoft that has Office 365, Microsoft Teams and a plethora of cheap laptops running Windows 10.

The city I live in (one of the major US metro areas) school systems use either the Google platform or the Microsoft platform. Apple has nothing at all to offer the education in this pandemic.

 

[TravelsInBlue]

Apple: *removes basic I/O like USB-A and SD, damages brand by quadrupling down on a terrible keyboard, keeps unpopular Touch Bar, does away with 32-bit support*

Also Apple: “People must not want laptops”

MBP’s have been junk since 2016.

 

[iBug2]

Well, their iPads are so good now, I sold my MBP and not buying another one. Using my iPad Pro instead. And iPads don't count as PC's.

 

[L-Viz]

These are devastating numbers for Apple, all due to the fact, that their machines are not user upgradable... except for that tower, that sells for the price of a car...

 

[Michael Scrip]

In spite of falling shipments, demand has soared in the first quarter of 2020, driven by remote working and learning requirements from strict lockdown measures across the world. Canalys predicts that vendors will report healthy profits over the coming weeks, with operating margin percentages reaching all-time highs.

I'm a little confused by this statement.

Yes... I know more people are working from home since the lockdown. But do they need to buy new computers to work from home?

Don't they already have functioning computers?

If you use a desktop at work and you have to buy a new laptop for home... then yeah... I can understand the increased demand.

But aren't most computers laptops anyway?

I guess I don't see the correlation between "forced to work from home" and "buying a new computer"

People replace computers at all times of the year. So I'm not sure what the recent lockdown has to do with it. If we didn't have this lockdown... you would continue to use your existing computer that is working perfectly fine.

And if anything... I think people and companies would want to spend less money in the coming months. This might not be the best time to spend money on a new computer.

 

[DNichter]

Easily Apple’s weakest platform. I’d imagine the goal is to completely shift more towards what has worked so well for iPadOS. This will likely come with the move to house made processors. I do wonder if Apple would move on from macOS though and throw everything possible at iPadOS. Shift everyone possible to a locked in system, makes the most business sense.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Fat chance. Apple is known for its ecosystem.

Which includes Apple Music... available on Android and Windows.

I'll bet Apple wishes that had a reasonably priced expandable desktop for users right now.

Nah, they’re selling iPads hand over fist. iPads will always outsell any expandable desktop and they’re cheaper because no macOS tax.

This belief seems predicated on the fallacy that history is an inexorable march of progress toward a higher good.

No, it’s based on the marketing fact that you market towards those in the best position to buy/acquire your products. For Apple products, those would would be younger folks at the start of their purchasing lifetime and not older folks, possibly on a fixed income, that haven’t bought a new system in years. If you read a lot of the comments here, it’s mainly about “Apple hasn’t made something I want to buy!” That’s correct, and they won’t because they’re making things a more valuable demographic want to buy.

The worst part out of all of this, is that I'm now genuinely considering getting a PC laptop as well, because honestly, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I genuinely am starting to like Windows.

That’s absolutely not a BAD thing! Imagine the breadth and depth of computing devices you’ll have the option of purchasing in the future?

Well, their iPads are so good now, I sold my MBP and not buying another one. Using my iPad Pro instead. And iPads don't count as PC's.

True, and interesting that as of 2018, Apple’s selling more iPads alone than the number of laptops sold by all the top computer makers. One range of systems beating the entire laptop market? That’s a place a MacBook has never been
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I do wonder if Apple would move on from macOS though and throw everything possible at iPadOS. Shift everyone possible to a locked in system, makes the most business sense.

See, I think so, too. BUT, it makes me wonder why they’re expending the effort (if the rumors are true) on an ARM powered macOS system? My guess would be because they think macOS has a future... but if so, what would that future be? Just a low selling (in the millions) device for developers and other professionals including content providers?

 

[hagjohn]

Apple needs to bring out some cheaper options for computers, around the $500 range.