Mac Shipments Rise Significantly in Q4 2020 Amid Overall PC Market Growth

[MacRumors]

Apple's worldwide Mac shipments were up in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to new PC shipping estimates shared this afternoon by Gartner. Apple shipped an estimated 6.9 million Macs during the quarter, up from the 5.25 million it shipped in the year-ago quarter, marking growth of 31.3 percent.

Gartner's Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q20 (Thousands of Units)​

Apple was the number four vendor during the quarter, and its market share also grew to 8.7 percent, up from 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020. There was growth across the entire PC market, and Lenovo, Dell, Acer Group, and ASUS all saw sales growth.

Lenovo was the number one PC vendor in the world with 21.5 million PCs shipped, followed by HP, with 15.7 million PCs shipped. HP was the only vendor that saw a slight drop in sales in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Apple's Market Share Trend: 1Q06-4Q20 (Gartner)​

Dell was the number three vendor with 13.2 million PCs shipped, while Acer and ASUS brought up the rear with 4.7 and 4.6 million PCs shipped, respectively.

Overall, there were 79.4 million PCs shipped in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 10.7 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2019. Total PC shipments hit 275 million in 2020, a 4.8 percent increase from 2019 and the highest growth seen in 10 years.

In the United States, Apple was the number four PC vendor with 2.7 million PCs shipped, up from 2 million in the year-ago quarter for a total of 32 percent growth. HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Microsoft also saw significant growth in U.S. shipments.

Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q20(Thousands of Units)​

Across all of 2020, Apple shipped an estimated 22.5 million Macs worldwide, marking 22.5 percent growth compared to 2019 when it shipped 18.3 million Macs. Apple was the number four vendor for the entire year, trailing Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

Gartner's Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2020 (Thousands of Units)​

IDC also released its own shipping estimates this morning, noting similar significant growth for Apple and other vendors. According to IDC, Apple shipped an estimated 7.4 million Macs, up from 4.9 million in the year-ago quarter for estimated growth of 49.2 percent.

Across 2020, IDC suggests Apple shipped 23 million Macs, up 29.1 percent from the 18 million that it shipped in 2019.

Data shared by Gartner and IDC is estimated and not reflective of Apple's actual sales, though historically, it's not usually too far off. Estimated data used to be able to be confirmed when Apple provided quarterly earnings results with actual Mac sales information, but Apple no longer breaks out unit sales for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, making it impossible to determine exact sales numbers.

Apple in the fourth quarter of 2020 released the M1 Macs, which include the M1 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. Mac growth could continue to rise significantly in 2021 as Apple is rumored to be overhauling additional Macs with Apple silicon chips, including iMacs, higher-end MacBook Pro models, and more.

Article Link: Mac Shipments Rise Significantly in Q4 2020 Amid Overall PC Market Growth

 

[Elijen]

I wonder why that might be ... /s

 

[Woyzeck]

Build products that people like and people will buy it.

Apple did several things the right way in 2020, unless the years before. Eat this, Jony.

 

[MichaelQ]

What does it look like when you add iPads into the count? My next computer wasn't a computer.

 

[Serban55]

When you have again an revolutionary line of products that is happening
By the end of 2021, macs will be sold even more than last years by a lot
The m1 was just the beginning

 

[hot-gril]

What does it look like when you add iPads into the count? My next computer wasn't a computer.

15.1M iPad shipments in Q3 2020 according to https://www.statista.com/statistics...s-by-operating-system-since-2nd-quarter-2010/

 

[Jimmy James]

Fixed the keyboards.
Released a brilliant chipset.

This is simply reflective of the fact that if you build a solid product people will buy it in droves. Next year will be interesting.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Glad to see this.

An Apple a day...

 

[farewelwilliams]

no, i think it's NOT because of the magic keyboard.

 

[IG88]

Apple shipped an estimated 6.9 million Macs during the quarter, up from the 5.25 million it shipped in the year-ago quarter, marking growth of 31.3 percent.

Guessing we have no way of knowing how much of that was M1 sales.

 

[kingofwale]

bought a lenovo and m1 this quarter... damn. Lenovo is killing it with the sale

 

[TravelsInBlue]

bought a lenovo and m1 this quarter... damn. Lenovo is killing it with the sale

Same, except replaced my 15” MBP with a Lenovo X1E

 

[Realityck]

Happy that Apple grew Mac marketshare in Q4 2020.

 

[jz0309]

we've seen covid related growth in2020 and Q4 is no different though there might be some M1 related growth but too early to tell. But it's good to see that Apple's marketshare is going in the right direction

 

[Seanm87]

Oh course its only because of the keyboard and has NOTHING to do with the fact everyone is working from home.

This place sometimes.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

What does it look like when you add iPads into the count? My next computer wasn't a computer.

iPad growth had been declining before covid.

 

[tongxinshe]

There will still be a long long time to go before tablet sales outnumbers traditional computers.

 

[az431]

There will still be a long long time to go before tablet sales outnumbers traditional computers.

Around the time of the next ice age.

 

[hot-gril]

There will still be a long long time to go before tablet sales outnumbers traditional computers.

Yeah, but iPad sales do outnumber Mac sales. Sadly. I think tablets have no real advantage and plenty of disadvantages.

 

[wood1208]

I have no doubt, once people gets more and more familiar with M based MAC's; market share will start growing at faster pace. Apple can control almost everything about MACs including price.

 

[Populus]

People is starting to realise how revolutionary the new Macs are, and once the knowledge about ARM computers, specifically Apple Silicon Macs, spreads towards more potential computer customers, we'll see an even bigger growth. Many people have been holding on waiting for that big change that Intel promised and didn't deliver.

 

[goobot]

Most of this is cause of corona, still the m1 macs are quite and improvement

 

[kreasonos]

Is that why it's taking over a month to ship my freakin Macbook Air?!

 

[arvinsim]

Release the 14"/16" and it will rise even more!

 

[Osamede]

Yeah, but iPad sales do outnumber Mac sales. Sadly. I think tablets have no real advantage and plenty of disadvantages.

Wrong. Tablets have size and simplicity.

Which you chose depends on your use case. I’m as hardcore a computer user as any, but for example at home I don’t want to use a laptop or desktop for reading news or documents. Or in cookbook mode in the kitchen. And if I leave home, tablet still beats laptop for size, compactness and weight.

Laptops and desktops have their pluses too. In particular with the M1, the laptop might obliterate the desktop, as an LCD and Thunderbolt dock is a lot simpler and cheaper.