Apple’s Mac sales surged 40.2% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2022 as all of the top PC makers shipments plummeted. As a result, the indomitable Mac’s worldwide market share rose from 8.2% to a whopping 13.5% year-over-year for Q322, according to the latest data from International Data Corporation (IDC).
Declines continued for the traditional PC market as global shipments totaled 74.3 million units during the third quarter of 2022 (3Q22), according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Cooling demand and uneven supply have contributed to a year-over-year contraction of 15.0%. However, shipment volumes remain well above pre-pandemic levels when PC volumes were largely driven by commercial refreshes due to the looming end of support for Windows 7.
“In addition to shipment volumes, we’ll be keeping a close eye on how average selling prices (ASPs) trend this quarter,” added Linn Huang, research vice president, Devices & Displays at IDC. “Shortages over the last several years have aggressively driven product mix shifts towards the premium end. This, coupled with cost increases of components and logistics, drove ASPs up five quarters in a row to $910 in 1Q22, the highest since 2004. However, with demand slowing, promotions in full swing, and orders being cut, the ASP climb was reversed in 2Q22. Another quarter of ASP declines indicates a market in retreat.”
Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Traditional PC Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q3 2022
(Preliminary results, shipments are in thousands of units)
Notes:
– Some IDC estimates prior to financial earnings reports. Data for all companies are reported for calendar periods.
– Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the company/brand under which they are sold.
– Traditional PCs include Desktops, Notebooks, and Workstations and do not include Tablets or x86 Servers. Detachable Tablets and Slate Tablets are part of the Personal Computing Device Tracker but are not addressed in this data.
MacDailyNews Take: Inexorably, the cream rises, as predicted many years ago.
As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. — MacDailyNews, January 10, 2005
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“MacDailyNews Take: Inexorably, the cream rises, as predicted many years ago.”
Nonesense… then Lenovo, HP, and Dell are the cream according to the chart. Might want to rethink that one.
There’s only one company rising on that chart, you nonsensical moron.
“The cream rises,” not “the cream has risen,” you abject idiot.
Before you spout off in reply, with your pitifully limited handful of brain cells, rethink it, you knee-jerking halfwit.
Thank you. Eminently deserved.
applecynic is clearly maladjusted and should read and listen more than he types and talks, but, of course, that would require some introspection, so we’re seemingly stuck wading through his pointless shtick littering up the joint.
Brutal alone does not justify your handle.
PP has slayed the Dragon……well done sir…….LOL!!!!!!
And how exactly has the cream risen if it doesn’t rise? Or was it eternally up there? Remember half-wit is better than mindless.
I can think of a lot easier people for someone of your rather limited faculties to take on than the writers of MacDailyNews Takes.
You should go searching for far lower-hanging fruit that you actually have a chance of reaching.
And you have to come to realize that if “cream rises to the top” Lenovo, HP, and Dell are thus “creamier”. Don’t be mad at me, I didn’t say it, and I didn’t present the data.
But here’s a realization for ya… “Stupid sinks like a stone”!
The article states that Apple is ADDING to its market share while PC are seeing FEWER units shipped up to this Quarter of 2022. Apple is moving upward in Market share in each category of products that directly compete with other consumer device maker….google that.
A blip in time. One quarter of good news doesn’t make up for years of stagnation in Mac sales. A <15% global market share is nothing to brag about.
I’d like to see Apple introduce more entry-level models and re-invigorate the Mac app store with more premium developer subscription-free software. Also consider the expected needs of future growth industries. Macs are nowhere to be found in hospitals or engineering or high tech mfg like 3D printing for example. Apple can’t run the necessary PC software natively, and now with M chips it’s made virtualization harder. Not a good omen for future sales unless Apple gets partnering with software makers to increase the availability of competitive native Mac software.
If you haven’t noticed, Microsoft and PC software makers are doing very well financially while Apple remains super reliant on its iOS store and seems more interested in developing overpriced accessories. The Mac profits could be much better if Apple cared, it’s as if the Mac App store has nobody minding it. Apple acts like its former iLife app suite is all users could ever need, and the hardware will magically sell to rich folks who love the brand image. That’s not growing the Mac business to new markets, or recovering the markets (education) that Apple threw away.
IHS made a note of how transitory the premium computer market sales bump is likely to be, since the supply chain is catching up on delivering lower cost parts to other mfrs. Apple is leaving money on the table.
Where’s the new Mac Pro?
Yes, the Mac is on the rise at the moment. A 13.5% market share is good. It is much, much better than the dark days when Apple’s market share was under 2%, and Apple was not even in the top 10 of personal computer sales.
However, this is still a long way from Apple’s best. At a point in the very early 90s, before the dark days, Apple had a market share of a high of 19.2% (admittedly that included both Apple ][ & /// as well as Mac), and Apple was selling more personal computers than any other company in the world. Will Apple ever reach that level again? I doubt it, but it should be a goal.
Once Apple had a near monopoly at several U.S. National Labs. If I recall correctly at one time Los Alamos was over 96% Apple computers if you don’t count the big machines. If I recall correctly at one time several NASA sites were well over 70% Apple computers. The list goes on. Apple lost all that during the dark days, and really never got it back.
Basically Apple needs to do three things with regard to Macs:
1) Create a broader developer base, including the big names.
2) Expand the lower end a bit.
3) Make the high end more flexible.
1) Is it possible to pick up the big name, technical and/or niche developers lost during the dark days? Not unless Apple broadens its capabilities. Just as one example: Apple needs to stop focusing on just its internal GPUs and Radeon. Apple needs to include drivers for Nvidia GPUs. A large fraction of those big name, technical developers focus on Nvidia. “Monkey Boy” made a sweat soaked fool of himself at a Microsoft conference by “dancing” and saying, “Developers. Developers. Developers.”, but he was right.
2) Apple does not have to go cheap, but they need to be marketing full systems that are well under $1,000. I’m not talking about $600 or $700 PCs, but an $800 PC will sell much more than a $999 PC that requires additional hardware to make it truly functional. Can Apple do an M1 based 12″ or 13″ MacBook that is well sub $1,000? I bet they could. Can Apple do an M1 based 24″ iMac that is well sub $1,000? I bet they could.
3) Look at the current Mac Pro. Unless you want to really dig, the vast majority of add in elements (other than memory or PCIe based SSDs) is solely from Apple. Name a non Apple GPU card that you don’t have to go in and do major surgery in software/firmware/hardware to get it to work. Name a SSD that works in the M.2 slot in the Mac Pro that does not require major surgery in software/firmware/hardware to get it to work. The so called “walled garden” is good only up to a point. Apple can require all the same protections in 3rd party software/firmware/hardware that it does in its own add in elements.
And to borrow a phrase… One more thing…
Apple needs to get the U.S. Government (and likely other governments too) to stop requiring Windows and the Edge browser or the Chrome browser to interface to official U.S. Government sites. There are many sites with which I have to interface that explicitly will not operate when I come in using a Mac and Safari. For some that require specific applications none support Mac OS — even on an Intel based Mac.
All of these likely will not bring the Mac back to its peak before the dark days. However, Apple seems to be so focused on subscriptions and services that the Mac is not getting its due. Just look at what’s happened over the last year or so. Even the iPhone and Watch introductions seemed to be as much about services as they were about the devices themselves. The rumors are that the next Mac introductions won’t even be done with an event but rather a press release!
Why would Apple make selling the most personal computers in the world again a goal? This would be a massive misuse of resources and their strengths. PCs are low-margin commodities that can be had for $100. The Mac has been less than 10% of Apple’s revenues over the past decade, about the same as iPad and just a little more than services (which have surpassed Mac revenues on a quarterly basis for some time now).
My first Apple product was also a Mac so I can understand the sentimental attachment, but it’s clear that Apple is no longer ‘Apple [Mac] Computer’, it’s all about iPhones, services and accessory products now. You could argue that Apple mainly sees the Mac as as a halo purchase for iPhone owners. By all means they should continue to cater to high-end customers and go after government and other institutional clients, but it’s not their bread and butter. Steve Jobs himself chartered this course over a decade ago with the iPhone and iPad. Today, 90+% of Apple’s revenue comes from iPhone, iPad, services and wearables. Despite this, the Mac has gotten far more support from Apple in the past 2 years than most of us probably thought possible.
P.S. I doubt we’ll see any Minis/MacBooks lower than $899 for the foreseeable future besides discounts on past models, the step-down from the M1 Airs are regular iPads, Apple has made this abundantly clear for years already.
Apple’s Market Cap is 2.3 Trillion Dollars. it is the BIGGEST companion the World. It is also the largest, most profitable Consumer device manufacturer since the ascendence of modern, digital technology. Apple has always been a FORWARD looking company….chill the jets, Hater
With limited innovation and constant unjustified price increase Market cap sounds like a joke…
What’s the reason to go for a MAC today?
Worse hardware, every single OSX upgrade destroys the stability of the OS…
reinventing the magnetic charging port and recycling innovation? Increasing constantly the prices, WHY?
I am sorry Apple and good bye!