Sales suffer as Apple neglects the Mac

“New data from research firms Gartner and IDC indicate that Apple Macs suffered significant declines in shipment volume in calendar Q2,” Mark Hibben writes for Seeking Alpha. “No one is particularly surprised, given how long it is taking Apple to update many Mac models such as the MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro. While fans look expectantly to a Fall refresh, investors have to wonder why it’s taking so long.”

“The research results of IDC and Gartner only disagree about the magnitude of the global Mac shipment decline,” Hibben writes. “IDC says it fell 8.3% y/y to 4420 units, while Gartner says it fell 4.9% y/y to 4559. Both Gartner and IDC agree that the global PC market is still in decline, by about 4.5-5%.”

“Following WWDC in June, I definitely had the feeling that Mac OS had fallen even further down in Apple’s list of priorities. MacOS Sierra was mostly about incremental improvements. The biggest changes were Apple Pay in the Safari browser and the inclusion of Siri,” Hibben writes. “Meanwhile, the hardware has languished. The non-Retina Display MacBook Airs have become a redundant anachronism with the advent of the 12″ Retina Macbook. The MacBook Pros have been in desperate need of an upgrade.”

Then “there’s the poor old Mac Pro, which is essentially unchanged since its introduction in December 2013. It’s still running Intel Ivy Bridge EP processors which were launched in 2013 and use Intel’s obsolete 22 nm process,” Hibben writes. “This is absolutely shameful for a company claiming to be a leader in technology and for a product that was supposed to offer Mac professional users best in class hardware.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: “This is absolutely shameful for a company claiming to be a leader in technology.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Exactly how rich and big does Apple have to be before the company runs like it has more than five guys working 18-hour days trying to do everything? The world’s most valuable company is incapable of updating the Mac Pro for two and a half fscking years? Seriously? “Mismanagement” is not too strong a word to apply to the ongoing Mac Pro fiasco.

Just like every other human, there are things Tim Cook does very well and there are other things about which he seems painfully inept.

Hint: Make new Macs and update them with regularity while advertising them strongly. Obviously, as you might have noted by perusing iPad unit sales reports, not everyone has fallen for your “iPad is the next PC” meme, yet, Tim.

We only say that as those who were already Mac users for over 13 years at the point Cook was still over at Compaq trying to get his Windows PC to work.

SEE ALSO:
Apple’s Mac sales fall, economies shudder – July 12, 2016
IDC, Gartner: Apple’s Mac no longer bucking PC industry’s sales slide – July 12, 2016