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Research Firms Paint Very Different Pictures of First Quarter U.S. Mac Sales

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Research firms Gartner and IDC yesterday both released preliminary reports detailing U.S. and worldwide PC shipments for the first quarter of 2010, and the two firms interesting offer very different pictures of Apple's U.S. performance during the quarter.

According to Gartner's report, Apple placed fifth among U.S. computer shipments with an 8.0% market share on unit growth of 34.0% over the year-ago quarter. Apple's market share was up significantly from the previous quarter's 7.5% share and from 7.2% in the year-ago quarter. The year-over-year increase moved Apple to its highest share first-quarter market share in recent years, in what is traditionally a light quarter for industry sales.


135255-gartner_1Q10_us_trend.png


Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-1Q10 (Gartner)
Overall, Gartner saw a healthy 20.2% gain in U.S. PC shipments over the year-ago quarter. The top five performing manufacturers broke down into three groups, with leaders HP and Dell showing slow growth of only approximately 7% while Acer and Toshiba continued to ride the wave of netbook popularity with 50% year-over-growth. Apple's 34% growth places it firmly in front of the industry average, but continuing to lose ground to those directly ahead of it in the charts.


135255-gartner_1Q10_us.png


Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 1Q10 (Thousands of Units)
For its part, IDC takes a much more dismal view of Apple's U.S. performance during the quarter, calculating Apple's market share there at only 6.4% on shipments of just over 1.1 million Macs, well below Gartner's estimate of nearly 1.4 million units. IDC's numbers have Apple's U.S. shipments growing only 8.3% year-over-year, significantly below the industry's overall growth rate of 16.9%.

It is unclear from where the discrepancy in data for Apple's shipments comes in the two reports, although most research analysts are expecting in the range of 25-50% year-over-growth in Mac sales for the quarter. While Apple's U.S. sales growth measured by Gartner and IDC may differ from global sales growth being predicted by the analysts, Gartner's analysis appears at this time to be a more realistic assessment of Apple's performance. We should learn more on Apple's sales next Tuesday, when the company releases its quarterly earnings report.

Article Link: Research Firms Paint Very Different Pictures of First Quarter U.S. Mac Sales
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/15/research-firms-paint-very-different-pictures-of-first-quarter-u-s-mac-sales/
I don't see why any spectacular growth should be expected, Apple isn't making an effort to target any new demographics with their Macs. The prices are the same, if not higher, than previously in the last couple of year and all we have had is refreshes. Neither gamers, scientists, health care, engineering, budget buyers are being targeted at all and together these represent a huge chunk of the Windows PC market share.

Apple is it's worst enemy in some ways, refusing to branch out in the Mac department and limiting most of it's ambition to the mobile space.
 
You know, maybe it would help a bit better if

1. Apple didn't release so many dang iProducts
2. Apple actually cared about their desktop/laptop line enough to give it a substantial upgrade unlike the Macbook Pro's recent update
3. Drop the price.

As much as I love Apple, if they want to see market share increase, they gotta do these three things to keep up with the 'big dogs.'
 
7.5% seems impressive.

The 'halo' effect of the iPad will likely keep the momentum going.
 
Behold the Great Netbook Flood!


Yixian said:
I don't see why any spectacular growth should be expected, Apple isn't making an effort to target any new demographics with their Macs. The prices are the same, if not higher, than previously in the last couple of year and all we have had is refreshes. Neither gamers, scientists, health care, engineering, budget buyers are being targeted at all and together these represent a huge chunk of the Windows PC market share.

Apple is it's worst enemy in some ways, refusing to branch out in the Mac department and limiting most of it's ambition to the mobile space.
Click to expand...

iPad and associated development is the future.

Mooey said:
As much as I love Apple, if they want to see market share increase, they gotta do these three things to keep up with the 'big dogs.'
Click to expand...

Market share in the premium end will never increase beyond a certain level. 10-11% at the most is about it. And frankly, no more is really needed.
 
Apple always seems to outperform analysts like this; like always, we'll see when the quarterly financials come in who was right and who was wrong....
 
Duncan-UK said:
How are they calculating the percentage figures for year on year growth? If you compare Q1 09 to Q1 10 in the table, you certainly dont seem to get the very high looking growth percentages.
Click to expand...

While the other sectors are growing in tandem, there would be growth all around.
 
DMann said:
Never saw that coming. :)


Nor would more than that be desirable.
Click to expand...

Did you just say more than 10-11% wouldnt be desirable? I hope you dont run a business... but ill give you a chance to explain
 
Mooey said:
You know, maybe it would help a bit better if

1. Apple didn't release so many dang iProducts
2. Apple actually cared about their desktop/laptop line enough to give it a substantial upgrade unlike the Macbook Pro's recent update
3. Drop the price.

As much as I love Apple, if they want to see market share increase, they gotta do these three things to keep up with the 'big dogs.'
Click to expand...

why do you hate it when apple have like 3 iProducts when companies like sony have 100+ products?
 
Uh... Windows 7 maybe?

What the hell were all these analysts expecting... that HP, Dell and PC's in general would not benefit from it?
 
I think one day, they'll pass the double digits mark. PC only has 92.8 of the market (28.1 + 26.2 + 12.5 + 6.9 + 19.1 = 92.8). There's room to catch up. There will be a day, damnit, when Apple represents the 92.8 of the O.S. market. Trust me on this one, guys. :)
 
9 out of 10 Apple sites agree that only the most positive or outlandish analyst predictions should be reported on. I hope macrumors has the decency to redact all mention of the IDC report.
 
Mooey said:
You know, maybe it would help a bit better if

1. Apple didn't release so many dang iProducts
2. Apple actually cared about their desktop/laptop line enough to give it a substantial upgrade unlike the Macbook Pro's recent update
3. Drop the price.

As much as I love Apple, if they want to see market share increase, they gotta do these three things to keep up with the 'big dogs.'
Click to expand...

Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?

(1) I assume that by stating this, you're referring to the preconceived concept that Apple has decided to place a greater emphasis on their gadgets, and not on their products. Seems likely, since the majority of their profit stems from the sales of their computers. :rolleyes:

(2) What were all of you expecting? Seriously? Bluray? USB3? 1 Terabyte hard drive? Quad Core? You aren't expected to go out and buy one of these in place of your recently acquired one. This is for people who have had a computer for a substantial amount of time, and would like to upgrade to the unibody. "Oh, so Apple improved the speed and battery of the macbooks, great; so happens I've been planning to buy one. I guess I'll do that now."

We've seen great updates in the past, or are you going to tell me that the unibody build was meager at best? Seriously guys, Apple doesn't have to innovate for EVERY update. Get real.

(3) Sure it's expensive, but you do get what you pay for. Average life span of the PC is 1 - 3 years, macs will last you 5 (from experience). If you decide to buy a new mac, that's your choice. Whichever company you choose, money distribution evens out. I happily pay extra to know that a virus won't fry my motherboard, or have to deal with the hassles of windows. Just the other day a large hotel received a virus on one PC, that spread all throughout (to 100 other PCs). Totally screwed up their system, and the system of the hotel. You have no idea what painstaking measures they have to go through right now.
 
pixelcruncher said:
9 out of 10 Apple sites agree that only the most positive or outlandish analyst predictions should be reported on. I hope macrumors has the decency to redact all mention of the IDC report.
Click to expand...

:( I tried to make your statement my signature, but it's too long ("That's what she said!")

Here's how it WOULD have looked:

________________
"9 out of 10 Apple sites agree that only the most positive or outlandish analyst predictions should be reported on. I hope macrumors has the decency to redact all mention of the IDC report."
MR user pixelcruncher on 04/15/2010 :)
 
Not sure but...

I think the issue is, Apple runs a business that isn't locked into market growth for their MAC OS desktops and laptops.

While the growth would be welcome it isn't a target for them to say, have 20% year over year growth.

Some businesses have to run by looking for a certain amount of growth in a particular type of product. Apple has been able to build a proftiable business but they haven't 'played that game' per se. As a small business owner and a former partner in another small company, growth means different things to different people and different business models not to mention different disciplines.

Given Windows standing in the corporate world, their is a very real limit on what any other desktop OS could achieve. Countless tens of hundreds of thousands of PC's ship each year to sit on desks of data entry, call servicing, middle managers who 'calendar' for a living ETC.

Windows makes a very suitable machine for those tasks and Dell builds them cheaply and sells them by the gazillion. But note, they make MUCH less money than Apple. So market share/size is debatable for hardware vendors. Especially when you don't sell PC's running Windows.


dgree03 said:
Did you just say more than 10-11% wouldnt be desirable? I hope you dont run a business... but ill give you a chance to explain
Click to expand...
 
Things could slip in the future. Mac is still about a third of their revenue. Giving mixed signals about Mac's future will not help things. Late MBP updates, likely no 10.7 news, no new Mac Pros, and no more switcher ads all in the context of mobile overkill leaves one to wonder if Mac is still a priority. If this continues Apple will never see 10% market share in computers.
 
Mooey said:
You know, maybe it would help a bit better if

1. Apple didn't release so many dang iProducts
2. Apple actually cared about their desktop/laptop line enough to give it a substantial upgrade unlike the Macbook Pro's recent update
3. Drop the price.

As much as I love Apple, if they want to see market share increase, they gotta do these three things to keep up with the 'big dogs.'
Click to expand...

They don't care about "market share", only "mindshare" and profit, as any good self respecting company should.
 
I think Apple does'nt care about traditional computers, desktops, notebooks with regular OS. They realize there's no money in them, and that people don't want or need the complexity of a full blown OS. The problem with regular OS is that it cost money to support, hard to use, virus, etc. Because of the simplicity of buying software ( app store ) on iPhone/Touch/iPad platform, people are willing to buy software in large quantities. Guess what is happening to all the developers that made Mac and Windows apps, they are either moving to app store/Android store/web apps. I'm guessing in about 2 years there won't be any dev's making apps on regular OS as there's no app store/payment method. Also, it's a lot easier to develop apps on iPhone OS vs Windows/Mac.
 
I can tell you that in the next year the Windows 7 will explode on the Business end. As an IT manager we have been waiting and completely skipped Vista. We have some very old computers!:eek:
 
John.B said:
Apple always seems to outperform analysts like this; like always, we'll see when the quarterly financials come in who was right and who was wrong....
Click to expand...

Or we can just say: these "analysts" have absolutely no ****ing clue about which estimates to pick. These share figures show that Apple continues to ride high, and will continue to dominate the high-end market with no end in sight.

iPod - MOST popular media player in the world;
iPhone - MOST popular smartphone in the world;
iPad - MOST popular tablet in the world;
Macs - SMASHING domination of the high-end market segment;
OS X - BEST OS in the planet.

What else do we need?

Ah yes...whiners :rolleyes:

MS IS DEAD. AND SO IS GOOGLE.
 
ipadking said:
I think Apple does'nt care about traditional computers, desktops, notebooks with regular OS. They realize there's no money in them, and that people don't want or need the complexity of a full blown OS. The problem with regular OS is that it cost money to support, hard to use, virus, etc. Because of the simplicity of buying software ( app store ) on iPhone/Touch/iPad platform, people are willing to buy software in large quantities. Guess what is happening to all the developers that made Mac and Windows apps, they are either moving to app store/Android store/web apps. I'm guessing in about 2 years there won't be any dev's making apps on regular OS as there's no app store/payment method. Also, it's a lot easier to develop apps on iPhone OS vs Windows/Mac.
Click to expand...
About half of Apple's revenue comes from computer sales. The gross margins are fantastic.

Trust me, they are interested in selling computers. But by all means, don't take my word for it: go read their SEC filings.

Sincerely,

AAPLshareholderLaughingAllTheWayToTheBank
 
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