“The massive iPhone sales that Apple announced this week as part of its quarterly earnings are impressive but not shocking,” Michael Endler writes for InformationWeek. “But best-ever Mac sales? In a quarter in which the PC market shrank overall? That was a surprise.”
“Macs supplanted iPads to move up to number two, behind iPhones, in Apple’s revenue chain. Granted, iPad sales slid 12.5% relative to last year — but Apple still sold 12.32 million tablets during the quarter, a sum that exceeds the quarterly PC sales of all but the top two vendors, Lenovo and HP,” Endler writes. “Even with iPad revenue down, it’s no small feat for Macs to have pulled ahead.”
“As strong as Mac sales have been in 2014, 2015 could be even bigger. Apple will continue to enjoy the benefits of its new pricing strategy throughout the holidays. Then, sometime in the first half of 2015, the company will likely introduce its long-rumored MacBook Air with Retina Display. Unless Apple goes truly gonzo with pricing, strong sales will surely follow. MacBook Pros are also due for a more substantial refresh, having received relatively mild spec bumps in 2014.,” Endler writes. “Macs have become more common in the enterprise over time, with BYOD efforts accelerating Mac growth in recent years. In a recent InformationWeek survey of 330 business technology professionals, 32% of respondents indicated their organizations support OS X. Windows PCs still outnumber Macs in many of these environments, but with Windows 10 still many months away, the conditions might be right for Macs to expand even more.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
NYT: Macs, iPhones and iPads seamlessly connect in Apple’s silky smooth ecosystem – October 22, 2014
The Mac is back: Why Apple just set an all-time Mac sales record – October 22, 2014
Apple’s Mac a surprise hit in Q414 results; market share now highest since 1995 – October 21, 2014
NPD: Apple Mac grabs 26.8% U.S. consumer market share – September 24, 2014
Apple Macintosh continues to dominate in personal computer customer satisfaction – September 23, 2014
Milestone: Apple computers outsold Windows PCs in Q4 2013 – February 12, 2014
Apple Macintosh continues to dominate in personal computer customer satisfaction – September 17, 2013
The opportunity will be even better AFTER the intro of windows ten…
Slow, deliberate and a punishing march to conquer MS and Google Lands. FUD, stealing, and posturing might win a battle or two, but never the war.
I meant to say FUD,… by Apple’s competitors …
So I can obviously open and comment on some stories but not on others without the MDN APP crashing. Tried to open the U.S. Government approving phones story and the app crashes every time. Is the government hacking the app?
Monday brought Pay to my iPhone 6+.
I picked up and setup my new Mac mini & Thunderbolt Display today.
My new iPad Air2 gets delivered tomorrow!
Best Apple week EVER!
With the A8X creeping up on real laptop performance, I predict the ARM MacBook Air by late 2015, early 2016. Sightly cheaper, a lot thinner, and longer battery life. 100% Apple.
Geekbench 3, Single Core / Multi Core speeds
iPad Air 2 (2104) 1,813 / 4,539
11-inch MacBook Air (2011) 1,773 / 4,137
11-inch MacBook Air (2012) 2,560 / 5,170
The majority of consumers don’t need Intel specs or compatibility (Apple won’t abandon Intel for people who need it). Swift, Objective C, and Xcode are already dual platform. Apple A-chips are already 64 bit and just increasing the clock speed from 1.5Ghz to 2 or 2.5Ghz would instantly put them into PC performance territory.
The moderately lower price will create another surge in MacBook Air sales, and the design control of processors will let Apple migrate its secure enclave and other innovations to Mac.
A long time to wait till 2104 to have an iPad that much slower than a 2012 MacBook Air mind though I have to compliment you on your vision to look that far ahead. Sad to say that even Micosoft might catch up with those figures by then mind even if they will be owned by the Chinese.
Maybe … just maybe. Light at the end of the tunnel may just be the return of the trucks!