“While research firms IDC and Gartner disagree on whether Mac sales are falling or rising, they do agree on two things: Q3 Mac sales were at their most sluggish for two years, but still well ahead of the rest of the PC industry,” Ben Lovejoy reports for 9to5Mac.
“Ahead of new retina 4K iMac and likley accessories launch next week, IDC estimated that Apple sold 5.3M Macs in Q3 2015, a year-on-year fall of 3.4%,” Lovejoy reports. “Gartner instead estimated 5.6M sales, representing a 1.5% increase. Both firms did, however, agree on two pieces of good news for Apple.”
“First, both sets of figures show that Apple is outperforming the PC market as a whole, which fell by either 7.7% (Gartner) or 10.8% (IDC),” Lovejoy reports. “Second, both agree that Apple increased its market share: from 6.9% to either 7.5% (IDC) or 7.6% (Gartner).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple will report actual Mac unit sales on October 27th.
SEE ALSO:
Gartner: Apple Mac keeps gaining share as Windows PC sales continue decline – October 8, 2015
Apple to release Q415 earnings, webcast live conference call on October 27th – October 8, 2015
There is no real point of putting too much emphasis on salami-slice breakdowns of Apple devices. They are all basically computers, if you think about it. One device makes the next one possible and gives rise to it. And on and on. Makes more sense to look at all of Apple’s products collectively as a spectrum: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Watch.
If Apple would make the effort to regularly update their Mac lineup, they might see better results.
Please pass your insight on to Tim Cook and the Apple Board of Directors.
Since when does the Board of Directors take requests? Apple has been tone-deaf to the Mac user community for several years.
Yes, if Apple had a new Mac Pro that was not in the undesirable trashcan configuration, I would buy it today.
So, if I understand. Mac sales are down!……….or up!
Ok, got it
If Apple would stop making disposable machines, they might see better results. There is no reason why the batteries should be glued in, RAM soldered fast or storage be non-standard, except that Apple wants you to throw the machine out and buy a new one after a few years, rather than trying to get maximum value out of it. This is why my 2011 15″ MacBook Pro will likely be my last Apple-made Mac.
This.
With Apple nowadays it’s all about making things as thin as possible for sex appeal or something… rather than convenient and useful. Then they strip out all the standard ports and force people to buy adapters. MAYBE 5 years from now that port you had to buy an adapter for MIGHT become widely adopted by the entire industry, oh but oops… now you have to buy another laptop, because our latest OS is no longer supported on that anymore.
Same goes with the software, with the “dumbening” for the masses. And the quality isn’t even there anymore. OS updates pumped out each year laden with bugs and performance issues. Why does my fairly new Macbook Pro still have choppy AirPlay quality which used to work fine in Mavericks?
Let me explain to you what is going on.
You are apparently NOT Apple’s target market. You represent a far outlier, a negligible percentage of the user base. Apple has been selling Macs with user-replaceable RAM, HD, battery, graphic card, for decades. Once they started building their vast network of Apple Stores, they started receiving reliable feedback regarding component upgrades. Sales data for the replacement batteries, RAM modules, internal HDs and other components helped make a more accurate and complete picture. And that picture was quite clear: most Macs end up being replaced by new ones without anything ever getting upgraded on them. In other words, the fact that the RAM was upgradeable, and battery replaceable, was useless — almost nobody was doing it. It just doesn’t make any sense to put in stuff that nobody takes advantage of. Those who follow Apple hardware should have noticed the trend long ago, with removal of: floppy drive, PCMCIA slot, modem port, optical drive, etc, etc, etc…
Nope, it’s an entirely profit-driven choice that Apple has made. The target market you describe are being channeled toward the MacBook (not Pro) line and the iPad. Those of us who use a computer to work are indeed in the habit of periodically changing out components. The component and tooling cost differences are negligible given that the conglomerates that produce these motherboards are pumping out designs of several different manufacturers. It’s also not exactly a “green” choice, given that Apple has artificially limited the useful lifespan of these machines. Regardless, even if I’m not in Apple’s “target market”, why push anyone with the disposable income to buy their premium-priced products away?
You essentially answered your own question, and answer is in my post as well. If nobody bothers using the features, then everybody is paying for stuff they don’t need. Apple is merciless about removing features and functionality once the percentage of users who actually use them falls below a certain threshold (probably somewhere around 2 – 3 % of total user base). Part of it is profit-driven; the other part is delivering what customers need, without the things customers don’t need.
My own, perfectly anecdotal evidence: at work, we have several hundred Macs; Mac Pros, (old and new) and MBPs. Not a single one was ever upgraded; they live for 5 – 6 years, then they get replaced by newer ones. When I question this policy, IT guys say it just isn’t worth the hassle, when the machines work as well as they did when they were bought (unlike Windows, which accumulate crud over time).
Your mileage may vary.
Simply put, I like to extract maximum value out of my hardware, and I don’t think I’m alone. I also don’t understand why people feel the need to rationalize Apple’s design choices in the face of those who have been negatively impacted by them. I will end my involvement in this discussion by saying that if you ever want to see Apple become a customer-centric company again, stop apologizing for them and don’t be afraid to be critical.
Honestly, I really DONćT want Apple to go back to building devices with things I don’t need. In twenty years of using Macs, i have ONCE upgraded RAM (some 15 years ago, on a Cube G4). If I can get a cheaper (or better) device for the same money by letting Apple shave off some expense making RAM, HD and battery non-replaceable, then I am all for it. I’m sorry that it would mean a few people such as yourself will be left in the cold. The problem is, this is simply either-or; more expensive, vs. more features.
If they drop AppleCare pricing to compensate for reduced upgradability that would seem to be a good tradeoff..
Or sell your old Mac for a nice down payment on your new one. I’ve never “thrown out” an old Mac in over 30 years.
No decent desktop options. They castrated the Mac Pro, ruined the Mac mini and the iMac is about 2x as expensive as comparable hardware.
On the subject of castration – you really need to spend a month or two on a Dell machine running Windows 8.
Macs last for freaking ever! Most Mac sales are laptops if I’m not mistaken. If I pick up the first MacBook Pro Retina and compare it to today’s MacBook Pro Retina, there is effectively little or no difference. Nothing the average user would see. People are compelled to upgrade.
I see so many people running on the little white MacBooks! Those machines are from early 2008! They’re about to be 8 years old and they’re one of the most popular refurbished machines. You can run Yosemite on the 2009 model. And you can repair them! You can open them up, put in a new hard drive, new memory, and generally you’re good to go.
Desktops are the same way. People are not rushing to upgrade.
I think if Apple wants to see a bump in computer sales, at the very least give us something new to look at. A black MacBook Pro would be nice.
Not a bad post TM! Macs are here to stay!
While HR and Finance did their best to incorporate a company that is doomed to be different, it turned into an ordinary company that just wants your money.
Making up to 500$ on a single iPhone? Why so much? Why so little for the rest of us?
Standing in Line to pick up your iPhone has become a culture of its own, a social event that the company uses to advertise that product. But the people prefer the event over the company. They are not Apple fans, they just love to be part of a friendly community.
iPhone vs. the Pope. NY had its moment and missed it.
Whats up NeXT?
I’ve been waiting for a new 27″ iMac – give me something new and I’m there .but in the meantime I’m waiting for iPad pro and the pencil .
In my experience, Apple makes spectacular hardware that’s a joy to use. I think that the relatively flat sales are due to the fact that Apple has been forced to wait for the new Skylake chips that will bring a quantum leap in performance and increased battery life. Release of Skylake has been seriously delayed, which is entirely beyond Apple’s control. When the new Skylake powered hardware is released, I’ll personally be buying a 5K retina iMac (my first) and either a MacBook, a 13″ MacBook Pro or a 13″ MacBook Air for use while traveling. Which I get depends on the new specs. I’vebeen relying on an early 2011 15″ MacBook Pro with 16GB of ram and dual SSD drives. I’m a good 12-18 months past my normal replacement cycle, but the Broadwell chip was way late and underwhelming. And the whole USB-C port thing makes waiting for Skylake chipped hardware a prudent decision. Just my take on Apple’s Mac sales lull…
If the Mac had a GUI that looked like it was designed for adults and not by Hanna Barbera, they might see an improvement. Someone in the Apple Store told me that there were people who didn’t buy Macs because they didn’t like Yosemite’s looks (then current).
bring back nvidia GPUs
I just flipped down the side of my g4 tower, the one with the upgraded memory, video card, usb/fw card, SATA card, chip and heat sink. I put a new clock battery in. Now it works good as new running Leopard with 6 hard drives, serving up all my backups and photos and music from the last 15 years. My aging iMac just got a new SSD drive and more memory. Runs great. But my new MacBook won’t work with either of these, won’t see them on the network and there is no way to target boot. It is light though. Unfortunately I use Macs to actually do stuff. So when I needed to record a something the other night, I had to skip the handy MacBook and rig everything into the iMac. My 2005 MacBook has gotten memory, hd and battery upgrades, easily. This new one is looking disposable by comparison. I used to be an Apple AE and a reseller. We sold Macs for their remarkable Cost of Life compared to PCs. I wouldn’t use that spiel now.
The iMac line desperately needs a full refresh. Not just a new Retina model. Pull the entire line up to date.