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Mac sales return to growth in Q1 amid continued PC market decline

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Following a contraction over the holiday shopping season, Apple's Mac shipments returned to growth during the first quarter of 2018 amid a deteriorating PC market, according to fresh statistics from market research firm Gartner.

Gartner estimates Apple shipped nearly 4.3 million units over the three-month period ending in March, up 1.5 percent year-over-year. The fourth-place performance gave the company a 6.9 percent share of the market, a figure last seen in the third quarter of 2017.

Mac experienced a downturn last quarter when Apple reported a 4.8 percent drop in sales compared to the year prior.

Mirroring recent quarters, HP finished in the top spot with 12.9 million units shipped to take a 20.8 percent share of the market, up 2.8 percent year-over year. Lenovo followed close behind with 12.4 million units shipped and 20 percent of the market. Dell was the quarter's biggest positive mover, ending the period up 6.5 percent with a 16 percent share on 9.9 million units shipped.

Asus and Acer again saw their slice of the pie diminished with a respective 3.9 million and 3.8 million units shipped, good for 6.3 percent and 6.2 percent of the market. For Asus, the 12.5 percent year-over-year decline dropped the firm into fifth place behind Apple, while Acer finished in sixth with an 8.6 percent decline in growth.

Though not as poor a showing as recent quarters, global PC shipments continued a downward spiral, with Gartner estimating a 1.4 percent contraction from the same time last year.

Apple put in a similar showing in the U.S., a region that accounted for 1.5 million shipments, up 0.5 percent year-over-year. Mac captured 12.6 percent of the market during the first quarter, according to Gartner. The performance landed Apple in fourth place behind Dell, HP and Lenovo. Of the top three, only Dell exhibited growth of 7.6 percent during quarter one, while HP and Lenovo shipments both dipped 4.8 percent over the same period.

Research firm IDC released its own set of numbers on Wednesday, putting Apple in fifth place worldwide with 6.6 percent of the market on 4 million shipments, down 4.8 percent year-over-year.

IDC estimates HP finished in first place globally with 13.7 million units shipped, up 4.3 percent to net a 22.6 percent marketshare. Second place Lenovo saw zero growth with 12.3 million shipments, but managed to capture 20.4 percent of the market. Dell rounded out the top three with 10.2 million units shipped, good for 16.9 percent of the market, while Acer shipments dropped 7.7 percent to 4.1 million units.



19 Comments

gatorguy 13 Years · 24627 comments

According to Philip Elmer-Dewitt:

IDC Numbers show Apple losing ground to HP
Apple’s worldwide Mac sales were 4 million in the March quarter, down 21.9% from the prior quarter and declining 4.8% yr/yr. Apple had a 6.6% market share in 1Q18 compared to a 7% market share a year ago. This compares to our 3.987 million total Mac estimate in F2Q18. This quarter marked Apple’s lowest ship share since 2Q14. We believe that Apple continues to face strong competition from other premium PC providers such as HP Inc.

My take: True to form, Apple is willing to lose market share to keep its average selling price constant or growing.
https://www.ped30.com/2018/04/11/analyst-idc-numbers-show-apple-losing-ground-to-hp/

tmay 11 Years · 6456 comments

gatorguy said:
According to Philip Elmer-Dewitt:

IDC Numbers show Apple losing ground to HP
Apple’s worldwide Mac sales were 4 million in the March quarter, down 21.9% from the prior quarter and declining 4.8% yr/yr. Apple had a 6.6% market share in 1Q18 compared to a 7% market share a year ago. This compares to our 3.987 million total Mac estimate in F2Q18. This quarter marked Apple’s lowest ship share since 2Q14. We believe that Apple continues to face strong competition from other premium PC providers such as HP Inc.

My take: True to form, Apple is willing to lose market share to keep its average selling price constant or growing.
https://www.ped30.com/2018/04/11/analyst-idc-numbers-show-apple-losing-ground-to-hp/

Net income for 2017;

Apple: $48.35 B

HP:       $2.53 B

Edit:

Added link:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/hp-grows-both-pc-and-printing-revenue-in-q4/

Also would note, from above, that Mac's are somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% of Apple's revenue. Two thirds of HP's is PC's, the balance is Printers/imaging.

blastdoor 15 Years · 3594 comments

I would love to see market share for computers with an ASP > $1k, > $1.5k, and >$2k. 

macxpress 16 Years · 5913 comments

gatorguy said:
According to Philip Elmer-Dewitt:

IDC Numbers show Apple losing ground to HP
Apple’s worldwide Mac sales were 4 million in the March quarter, down 21.9% from the prior quarter and declining 4.8% yr/yr. Apple had a 6.6% market share in 1Q18 compared to a 7% market share a year ago. This compares to our 3.987 million total Mac estimate in F2Q18. This quarter marked Apple’s lowest ship share since 2Q14. We believe that Apple continues to face strong competition from other premium PC providers such as HP Inc.

My take: True to form, Apple is willing to lose market share to keep its average selling price constant or growing.
https://www.ped30.com/2018/04/11/analyst-idc-numbers-show-apple-losing-ground-to-hp/

Apple will never compete on price. It never has and never will and if Apple ever decided to do so, it will be the death of Apple as we know it today. You can't make the products and services Apple does and have a low MSRP. It just doesn't work that way. I don't see Apple being more successful by doing everything cheaply and creating $399 Macs with cheap parts, or $400 iPhones (bought outright). Nobody that I can think of puts forth the amount of effort into each and every product and service as Apple. Maybe some don't see the value and thats fine. Some also don't see the value in buying a BMW when all they care about is getting from point A to point B and back. There are folks who all they care about is being able to turn a computer on, open the browser of their choice and do what they need to do. For those people, Apple probably isn't the best decision. Apple doesn't really make products for those kinds of people. I don't really think its ever been Apple's goal to sell the most of something, even in Steve's era. Apple's goal is to sell the best product they can sell and possibly change someone's life in the process. You can't do that and make cheap products....you can't have it both ways. 

So I don't really think its a fair assessment to just have a point blank marketshare of computers. Its like comparing Ford sales to Mercedes Benz sales and then complaining because Ford is kicking Mercedes' ass in sales. This is just simply something that some analysts don't get. I'm fairly certain it doesn't keep anyone at Apple awake at night that HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc sells more computers than Apple. They always have...nothing Apple does is going to change that. 

gatorguy 13 Years · 24627 comments

macxpress said:
gatorguy said:
According to Philip Elmer-Dewitt:

IDC Numbers show Apple losing ground to HP
Apple’s worldwide Mac sales were 4 million in the March quarter, down 21.9% from the prior quarter and declining 4.8% yr/yr. Apple had a 6.6% market share in 1Q18 compared to a 7% market share a year ago. This compares to our 3.987 million total Mac estimate in F2Q18. This quarter marked Apple’s lowest ship share since 2Q14. We believe that Apple continues to face strong competition from other premium PC providers such as HP Inc.

My take: True to form, Apple is willing to lose market share to keep its average selling price constant or growing.
https://www.ped30.com/2018/04/11/analyst-idc-numbers-show-apple-losing-ground-to-hp/

Apple will never compete on price. It never has and never will and if Apple ever decided to do so, it will be the death of Apple as we know it today. You can't make the products and services Apple does and have a low MSRP. It just doesn't work that way. I don't see Apple being more successful by doing everything cheaply and creating $399 Macs with cheap parts, or $400 iPhones (bought outright). Nobody that I can think of puts forth the amount of effort into each and every product and service as Apple. Maybe some don't see the value and thats fine. Some also don't see the value in buying a BMW when all they care about is getting from point A to point B and back. There are folks who all they care about is being able to turn a computer on, open the browser of their choice and do what they need to do. For those people, Apple probably isn't the best decision. Apple doesn't really make products for those kinds of people. I don't really think its ever been Apple's goal to sell the most of something, even in Steve's era. Apple's goal is to sell the best product they can sell and possibly change someone's life in the process. You can't do that and make cheap products....you can't have it both ways. 

So I don't really think its a fair assessment to just have a point blank marketshare of computers. Its like comparing Ford sales to Mercedes Benz sales and then complaining because Ford is kicking Mercedes' ass in sales. 

Agree with everything you said.