“After defying industry trends in recent years, Apple is feeling the slowdown in global purchases of laptop and desktop computers,” The Associated Press reports.
“Apple shipped 4 to 8 percent fewer Mac computers during the second quarter of 2016, compared with a year earlier, according to new estimates from two research firms,” AP reports. “Apple enjoyed steady increases in Mac sales for most of 2014 and 2015, while the rest of the PC market was in a slump… But Apple Inc. has been reporting a dip in Mac unit sales since the end of last year, and estimates released Monday suggest that trend is continuing. Analysts estimate Apple shipped 4.4 million to 4.6 million Macs in the quarter ending June 30.”
“PC sales overall have been declining for the last four years,” AP reports. “Global PC shipments fell to 62.4 million in the last quarter, down 4.5 percent from a year earlier, according to researchers at International Data Corp. Analysts at a second firm, Gartner, estimated that drop at 5.2 percent.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: These are estimates only from sources whose estimates haven’t been uniformly accurate in the past. We’ll know for sure on July 26th after market close when Apple reports the actual results.
That said, several Mac lines are woefully long-in-the-tooth, so we expect there’s much pent-up demand to be fulfilled once Apple deigns to give users new Macs to buy. Some new Mac TV ads would be nice, too.
Maybe if Apple actually cared about the Mac sales would not start declining.
Just a thought OK Tim?
Yesterday’s technology at tomorrow’s prices. You can’t recommend the current macs in good conscience.
Precisely my dear MDN. And disenchantment (yes I’ll dare say it again) with the Mac Pro line where many of us are sitting on the fence waiting to get the professional machine we really want, and not some over-designed ill-thought out too-small-for-prime-pro-time black trash can. Pro’s want a pro machine like a 2002 Burger King burger – they want it “their way.” An 8 processor iMac 5K wouldn’t be bad either with 64Gb RAM and Nvidia graphics card (CUDA anyone?).
I’m going out on a limb and guessing that the MacPro may be dead. Everything sees to point that way.
There isn’t any kind of whispering or chatter about anything in that space. In comparison we pretty much know everything about the MacBook Pro already, as well as the new iPhone.
As you say, Apple doesn’t seem in the least bit interested in that market. In my opinion they’re information appliance makers now, and the iMac may be as “pro” as they need to go.
We’re primarily talking about gamers and serious video editors, and they’ve surrendered gamers already. Only stubborn Mac users who don’t want their hands soiled with Windows are still using Macs in CGI, Video, etc.
These days Apple is about the guy who shoots his entire award winning documentary on his iPhone, and edits it on his iPad.
Old monitors have been discontinued, and there are no new monitor to replace.
When you see their product line picture, what’s conspicuously missing? Each device addresses a need that they wish to cover. Apparently that doesn’t include the “pro” user.
It could be an 80/20 rule thing. 80% of creatives that use Macs are on iMacs, so why push for that last 20%?
Powerful GPU cards are too thick for Apple’s taste I think? (I’m only partially kidding).
If you can’t see Taylor Swift buying one, Apple probably won’t make one.
We’re at the cusp of learning new ways to do old jobs anyway. Perhaps they’ll do something with a chassis similar to the Razor Core.
But I bet you’re right about the 8 core iMac 5K and maybe even a build to order 10 Core iMac 5k?
You may well be right TM. It would make things much simpler if Apple would simply cop to no future Mac Pro development and free us to make other choices. I have many prominent friends in the video, graphics and VFX world who’s preference is Macs. Emmy and Oscar winning folks. I am pragmatic, even if previously biased toward Macs. I am finding it easier to reconcile moving on as far as pro uses, but it’ll be a sad day. Helping a friend with his 4K editing setup with a custom PC built the way you want it was kind of exciting. I could get used to that. An 8-core iMac would be tempting but multiple Xeon CPU’s is the way to go for the added higher RAM advantages. Oh and a couple great GPU vide cards. Thanks for responding – always nice to talk to an adult here instead of a few bratty juvenile numbskulls wasting this space. 🙂
how long has it been that we actually have seen ads on tv for macs?
not since the days “i’m a mac and i’m a p.c.” i would wager
guess that is how you spell “missed opportunity” these days
pretty lame
Does Apple have any ads for any of its products on TV. I honestly can’t recall any. Is it because it wouldn’t be of any use due to all the retail stores they have?
I agree that regular updates to the Mac line up would help with sales.
I am still using this 1st gen 15″ rMBP after 4 years and it is still going strong. However, I would be willing to upgrade if a significantly better model was around. I bought a new 15″ rMBP for my wife last October since the older one was on its last legs. The newer model has some features like force touch that mine does not but other than that it is more or less the same.
I also would have updated our Mac mini but settled on putting an SSD in the 2009 model instead.
So all together that is about $3000 of lost sales from one household.
Let’s see what Apple announces in the Fall.
Personally, according to rumors about the next version of macOs, I will need to upgrade to a newer iMac.
Will there be new a new iMac to go along with that new version of macOs or whatever is the proper designation of the os name is.
It’s not surprising, since the only new Mac they’ve released in recent memory is the new thin Macbook. Mac Mini, Mac Pro, Macbook Pro, and even iMac are starting to look really, really old. Get with the times, Apple. What the fuck is the hold-up??
“That said, several Mac lines are woefully long-in-the-tooth, so we expect there’s much pent-up demand to be fulfilled once Apple deigns to give users new Macs to buy.”
The understatement of the year to date — maybe of this century to date.
The iMac has not had a serious update to its design in 9 years, the Mac Pro is dead in the water, the MacBook comes with one port and keyboard that *everybody* does not like… shall I go on?
Sorry but the competition has caught up. People I speak to who use Windows 10 absolutely love it, and they can get a laptop that looks very close to a MacBook but costs half as much.
Then you have Apple fans who are not buying because of the lack of upgradabilty.
Chickens are coming home to roost for Mr. Cook, who seems more worried about leftist social action.
I usually upgrade my MBP every 3 years. My current rMBP 15″ is now 4 years old. I’m waiting for TouchID to come to the Mac. I don’t really need a new MBP, but TouchID would sell me on an upgrade. Until then, I’ll wait….
Part of the story is, intel processors haven’t really improved much for several years now, yawn. I hope Apple can do something about that… (A10? B10?)
You’re kidding, right?
Intel’s processing power, memory access speeds, connectivity, and integrated graphics continue to improve by leaps and bounds. PCIE (Thunderbolt) alone has been improved dramatically in the last 3 years. It’s Apple that is falling behind, milking the old products.
You are woefully misinformed.
Intel has some killer chips but you aren’t finding them in Macs.
Intel Core i7-6950X Broadwell-E
http://www.techspot.com/review/1187-intel-core-i7-6950x-broadwell-e/
Xeon E7-8890 v4
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3079510/hardware/intels-next-monster-24-core-chip-is-made-for-high-performance-computers.html
on the 6950X:
140W power consumption?
$1723 price tag?
not gonna fit into an iMac.
But it sure would fit nicely into the mid-range Mac tower that Apple refuses to make.
At least not any iMac Jony Ive is going to design. I don’t know why Apple can’t have at least one loss leader product that’s totally rad. They could at least build a limited edition high-end product with super-specs to see if anyone bites.
1. The SSD options for every Mac need to be way, way cheaper. They are certainly not insanely great.
2. Apple quest for the tiniest, slimmest, lightest desktop computer is a bit misguided–these are desktop computers! It’s okay if they offer a little more practically at the expense of thinness or weight. The MacMini, for example, should use standard 3.5″ HDs! This is one case where an extra inch of space is completely irrelevant.
3. MacPro should have 2 drive bays–one for the overpriced SSD but one for the massive HD for backup and large media files. Or, gasp, maybe I need an optical drive!
4. It’s okay if this computer is larger than a boutique bathroom trashcan. Remember what Jobs said about trucks? Nobody wants a truck isn’t big enough to hold their gear.
5.Put the frickin’ SD slot and at least ONE USB slot on the front or the side where I can see it and get to it.
6. Allow us to run iOS apps on the Mac desktop.
I agree with the first part of #2 but traditional 3.5″ Hard drives are going extinct. I think the Mini is fine the way it is.
No, 3.5″ drives are not disappearing. They continue growing more capable and will always have more capacity than laptop grade components. If you wanted a media server, it should be possible to insert a 10 GB hard drive (available now) into a second drive slot in the Mac Mini. Except Apple is out to lunch. Apple doesn’t realize that many people prefer to keep their home videos at home instead of in somebody else’s cloud.
I think you meant 10 TB drives.
HGST offers some impressive hardware. The Helium drives are awesome if you keep them cool. That’s Apple’s problem: they refuse to put the effort into making computers with the size needed for proper cooling. Until they put engineers in charge of desktop computer design, you will continue to have crippled performance. All of the recent Macs feel snappy when you’re surfing the web, but when you dig into sustained operations, Apple’s sealed boxes get hot and start throttling performance noticeably. For a company with this much resources, it’s inexcusable to not offer multiple lines of computers: sexy consumer grade stuff and professional grade functional Macs. What takes so long, Apple ???????????
https://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/ultrastar-he10
I suspect that one of the considerations for putting a 3.5″ HDD in the Mac mini is power consumption/heat. The Mac mini (and the iMac) use laptop-based components to reduce power consumption and heat generation to reduce or eliminate the need for active thermal control.
IOW: Apple places fashion over function.
CPU and GPU generate far more heat than a hard drive. Apple’s just making desktop design choices to look pretty. Laptop components don’t even save that much money. It’s all style over substance.
Again, there is zero reason why a desktop computer needs to be that concerned about power consumption/heat. They still use 3.5″ HDs in the iMac.
Also, the MacMini should be as cost-effective as possible–using 3.5″ HDs would have made it that much easier for Apple to offer more bang for the buck. No one, and I mean absolutely NO ONE would care that the Mac Mini was 1″ wider.
Open up design of the Mac to outside firms. Apple is insular and shows all the hallmarks of group think. One USB port on the MacBook forcing users to carry a MacBook sized array of peripherals and dongles? Puleeze. Macs are fun and macs are tools. Somehow it got replaced by macs are a thinner and thinner fashion accessory. If Apple can think different and return to meeting and EXCEEDING people’s needs and wants, the sales will follow.
Not too impressed with your attempt at humor, anonymous poster. Your pessimism is overblown and your take is unreasonably slanted against Cook.
I am glad that you sold your stock. I don’t suppose that you have any reason to comment on this forum anymore…
By the way, the money that you spent on that kitchen remodel depreciates rapidly and does not pay quarterly dividends. Congratulations.
You forgot to add your…
/s