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Worldwide Mac Sales Up Slightly as PC Market Continues to Decline in Q1 2017

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Amid a continuing decline in worldwide PC shipments, Apple's Mac sales are up slightly, according to new PC shipping estimates shared today by Gartner.

During the first quarter of 2017, Apple shipped an estimated 4.2 million Macs worldwide, up from 4 million in the year-ago quarter for an estimated growth of 4.5 percent. During the quarter, Apple held 6.8 percent of the market, up from 6.3 percent during the first quarter of 2016, allowing the company to hold on to its position as the number five PC vendor in the world.

Lenovo, HP, and Dell, the top three worldwide PC vendors, saw shipment growth during the quarter. Lenovo shipped an estimated 12.4 million PCs for 20 percent of the market (1.2 percent growth), HP shipped an estimated 12.1 million PCs for 19.5 percent of the market (6.5 percent growth), and Dell shipped 9.4 million PCs for an estimated 15 percent of the market (3.4 percent growth).

gartner_1Q17_global.jpg
Gartner's Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q17 (Thousands of Units)​
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Asus, the number four PC vendor in the world, saw a sharp decline in growth, shipping only an estimated 4.5 million PCs compared to 5.3 million during the first quarter of 2016. Acer and the "Other" group composed of smaller manufacturers also saw declines.

According to Gartner, overall worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.2 million units, a 2.4 decline compared to the first quarter of 2016.
"While the consumer market will continue to shrink, maintaining a strong position in the business market will be critical to keep sustainable growth in the PC market. Winners in the business segment will ultimately be the survivors in this shrinking market," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "Vendors who do not have a strong presence in the business market will encounter major problems, and they will be forced to exit the PC market in the next five years. However, there will also be specialized niche players with purpose-built PCs, such as gaming PCs and ruggedized laptops."

"The top three vendors -- Lenovo, HP and Dell -- will battle for the large-enterprise segment. The market has extremely limited opportunities for vendors below the top three, with the exception of Apple, which has a solid customer base in specific verticals."
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In the United States, PC shipments totaled 12.3 million units in 1Q 2017, also a 2.4 percent decline compared to 1Q 2016. Apple is the number four PC vendor in the United States, shipping an estimated 1.47 million Macs (for 12 percent market share), a slight decline from the 1.48 million Macs shipped in the first quarter of 2016.

gartner_1Q17_us.jpg
Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q17 (Thousands of Units)​
​

While HP saw 16 percent growth in the United States with an estimated 3.6 million shipments, shipments were down for Dell (3.2M), Lenovo (1.7M), and Asus (503,000).

gartner_1Q17_us_trend.jpg
Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-1Q17 (Gartner)​
​

IDC also released its PC market shipment estimates today, and as per usual, its numbers tell a different story, in part because of the difference in the way tablets are counted by each firm.

According to IDC, the PC market saw its first growth in five years, with worldwide shipments totaling 60.3 million in the first quarter of 2017 for year-over-year growth of 0.6 percent. IDC's estimates for Apple are similar to Gartner's, with IDC suggesting worldwide Mac shipments of 4.2 million units, up from 4 million in the year-ago quarter for 4.1 percent growth.

It's important to note that data from Gartner and IDC is preliminary and that the numbers can shift, sometimes dramatically and sometimes less so. Last year, for example, Gartner estimated Mac shipments of 4.6 million in the first quarter of 2016, but the actual number was just over 4 million.

Article Link: Worldwide Mac Sales Up Slightly as PC Market Continues to Decline in Q1 2017
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/11/q1-2017-worldwide-mac-sales-up-amid-pc-decline/
lostngone said:
That is pretty good considering(in my opinion) Apple isn't even really trying to do much anymore in that market.
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If you think that is pretty good, just imagine what their sales would be if they actually had new computers to sell? At this point, everyone must be buying Macbooks, because everything else is rated a "DO NOT BUY" from Apple because it's old and outdated, but still priced like the day it was released.
 
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MacRumors said:
IDC also released its PC market shipment estimates today, and as per usual, its numbers tell a different story, in part because of the difference in the way tablets are counted by each firm.
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Didn't research but is Gartner the one adding tablets to their total? I assume that to be the case since IDC shows 60 million units to Gartner's 62 million. One firm seems bullish on the PC market and the other firm seems a bit more bearish.

IDC's reporting is decidedly more upbeat.
https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/11/mac-sales-idc-pc-industry-rebound/#disqus_thread
 
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dmylrea said:
If you think that is pretty good, just imagine what their sales would be if they actually had new computers to sell? At this point, everyone must be buying Macbooks, because everything else is rated a "DO NOT BUY" from Apple because it's old and outdated, but still priced like the day it was released.
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But at what price a new Mac?

That's what many people conveniently overlook when they clamour for new Macs - there's always an opportunity cost.
 
While the consumer market will continue to shrink, maintaining a strong position in the business market will be critical to keep sustainable growth in the PC market.
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Haha, I love that. However, I don't see Apple do a 180°
Their iWork suite is for yard sales and ms office for mac is crippled.

Everyone knows you need at least ms office for windows when you work in a company that wants to do some analysis.

My apologies if this sounds harsh, but I'm frustrated because finance people and analysts aren't considered pro apparently, as we need to resort to parallels and MS office windows to get something done. Even their own corporate dept. uses Parallels and MS office windows. Talking about a joke whenever I see pro and ms office for mac/ios on an advertisement.
 
The stats would have been better if they had updated desktop hardware. Maybe they thought everyone would switch to an iPad pro by now.

Regardless, they could have made an updated iMac with a smaller/ transparent bevel with 4k screens standard, a touchbar external keyboard, and a kaby lake processor w/ an optional discrete GPU for people who like to play games...

... and an antiglare option but that's just me being selfish lol.
 
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Amid a continuing decline in worldwide PC shipments, Apple's Mac sales are up slightly
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So we're going to do the old "Shipment vs Sales" sleight of hand comparison that Apple's famous for when claiming "sales" but are actually really nothing more than product shipped to stores?
 
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DakotaGuy said:
When you see how stagnant growth is for everyone in the PC business it sort of makes sense why Apple isn't putting forth a lot of effort with Macs these days.
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Bingo!

Especially yearly updates when Intel CPU performance improvements are pretty weak. Kabylake over Skylake was just a few percent better. Yet people get so frothed up on having the latest cpu "name" even though improvements from previous generations are slim.

My 5K Skylake iMac is still an outstanding desktop with fast 4 GHz i7 cpu, a superb high-res wide gamut display and super fast SSD. Not missing Kabylake at all, 14 months after purchase.
 
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But what is the real story behind all of this?
One could read a lot of different stories...
One thing I'm 'guessing' is even low end PCs are lasting longer nowadays before requiring an upgrade and since cheaper PCs could make up the bulk of shipments, the market is down overall.

I also note that the top PC makers are outperforming Apple which is not a surprise given exchange rates around the world and Apple not discounting to relieve pressure on upward pricing and also given the old tech Apple is selling.

Tablets are also good enough for a segment of the market, so too are phablets.

Having recently switched from a MBP to a Dell Laptop because I no longer wear the rose tinted glasses, I can still see the appeal of Apple gear which for the most part works flawlessly and looks 'gorgeous' as Tim would put it
and why even at Apples increased prices they are still doing well.
 
Well I guess I contributed to the Mac's modest success with my iMac purchase in January. I hope this (not myself) modest success encourages Apple to give the Mac more attention.
 
Maybe PC sales will pick up if an a large electromagnetic interference event happens near a well-to-do populated center and everyone has to buy new computers. Or maybe not. It would have been nice if IOS had turned iPads into workable personal computers by now.
 
lostngone said:
That is pretty good considering(in my opinion) Apple isn't even really trying to do much anymore in that market.
Click to expand...

Yes, this doesn’t fit the ‘Apple has abandoned the Mac’ narrative that has taken hold. Funny how a dose of reality clears things up.
 
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