Apple gaining PC marketshare despite lower Mac shipments, fresh estimates suggest

Two newly-published sets of preliminary research agree that Apple gained PC marketshare in the March quarter, even as Mac shipments declined year-over-year.

Apple shipped 3.98 million Macs during the three-month period, according to Gartner's latest estimates, a figure down from 4.08 million a year ago. Analysts nevertheless pegged Apple's marketshare at 6.8 percent, up slightly from 6.6 percent. IDC meanwhile calculated March-quarter shipments at 4.06 million, and Apple's share at 6.9 percent, an increase from 6.8 percent last year.

Both Gartner and IDC agreed that Apple ranked fourth in global PC shipments, but differed on who the industry leaders were. IDC listed the top three as HP, Lenovo, and Dell, while Gartner swapped HP and Lenovo's positions.

The two firms also supported the view that the PC industry shrank as a whole, with IDC estimating a 3 percent slip to 58.48 million units, and Gartner a 4.6 percent drop to 58.52 million.

"While the consumer market remained weak, the mix of product availability may have also hindered demand," wrote Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa. "In contrast, Chromebook shipments increased by double digits compared with the first quarter of 2018, despite the shortage of entry-level CPUs."

IDC likewise cited a shortage of low-end CPUs as a problem, particularly from Intel, prompting PC makers to use more AMD chips.

On Apple, IDC claimed that while the company recently refreshed some MacBooks, they "have not been met with the greatest fanfare," mostly because of hardware problems that could continue to have lingering sales effects.

Apple is expected to offer an overview — not hard unit sales — of Mac's second fiscal quarter performance in an investor conference call after it reports earnings on April 30.

27 Comments

wood1208 2933 comments · 10 Years

About 5 years ago

I doubt it. If Apple wants to make a sizable dent and expand MAC user base, eco-system than keep expanding bottom user base. Offer GoTo systems for bottom huge user base and rest to professionals,enterprises,

genovelle 1481 comments · 16 Years

wood1208 said:

I doubt it. If Apple wants to make a sizable dent and expand MAC user base, eco-system than keep expanding bottom user base. Offer GoTo systems for bottom huge user base and rest to professionals,enterprises,

Sizable market share doesn’t make any money. The companies who are selling those computers are not making profit on them. Profit means you can continue to develop new things while others suffer or die.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

genovelle said:

wood1208 said:

I doubt it. If Apple wants to make a sizable dent and expand MAC user base, eco-system than keep expanding bottom user base. Offer GoTo systems for bottom huge user base and rest to professionals,enterprises,

Sizable market share doesn’t make any money. The companies who are selling those computers are not making profit on them. Profit means you can continue to develop new things while others suffer or die.

I would assume that Apple is still making over 90% of the profit in the traditional, consumer PC desktop and notebook market.

chasm 3595 comments · 10 Years

And that's why Wood1208 isn't CEO of Apple, or indeed anything.

StrangeDays 12962 comments · 8 Years

wood1208 said:

I doubt it. If Apple wants to make a sizable dent and expand MAC user base, eco-system than keep expanding bottom user base. Offer GoTo systems for bottom huge user base and rest to professionals,enterprises,

Why would Apple be interested in expanding the user base of Media Access Controllers?