Mac shipments up slightly in Q2 as PC market shows signs of recovery [u]

Shipments of Apple's Mac computers were up 5.1% year over year in the second quarter of 2020, ahead of wider growth experienced by the PC industry following coronavirus delays, according to research firm Gartner.

Apple is estimated to have shipped 4.4 million Macs during the three-month period ending in June, up from 4.2 million units in the year ago quarter. The performance garnered the Cupertino tech giant a fourth place spot with a 6.7% share of the PC market, Gartner says.

Lenovo was once again the top manufacturer with 16.2 million units shipped in the second quarter, up 4.2% year over year. The firm's take of the market grew from 24.7% in 2019 to an even 25% in 2020. HP was an estimated 32,000 units behind Lenovo, exhibiting solid growth of 17.1% on the year.

Dell, the only major vendor to show signs of contraction during the June quarter, shipped 10.7 million units to take a 16.4% slice of the pie. Shipments were down 0.3% from the same time last year.

Acer and Asus rounded out the pack with 4 million and 3.6 million shipments, respectively.

The overall PC market is showing signs of recovery after the coronavirus disrupted supply channels and suppressed demand around the globe. While the virus still rages in the U.S., most developed nations have managed to flatten the curve.

"The second quarter of 2020 represented a short-term recovery for the worldwide PC market, led by exceptionally strong growth in EMEA," said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner. "After the PC supply chain was severely disrupted in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the growth this quarter was due to distributors and retail channels restocking their supplies back to near-normal levels.

It should be noted that firms like Gartner do not have insight into Apple's supply or retail chains and provide estimates based on independent research. The methodology, and more importantly results, of market research firms have been brought into question in the past, with Apple executives dismissing the data as largely incorrect.

Update: IDC also released PC industry estimates for the second quarter, finding Apple up a whopping 36% on shipments of 5.6 million Macs. The firm's numbers are similar to those offered by Gartner, though IDC puts HP in the lead over Lenovo.

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11 Comments

NCrimN8R 1 comment · 4 Years

About 4 years ago

You have to wonder how much of this uptick in demand is due to work and school from home. Is it sustainable?

iOS_Guy80 899 comments · 5 Years

NCrimN8R said:

You have to wonder how much of this uptick in demand is due to work and school from home. Is it sustainable?

Yes, especially as people and students continue to work and school from home. I would suspect iPads, AirPods and Apple Pencil shipments will increase proportionally also.

Beats 3073 comments · 4 Years

6.7%

Apple is doing great but terrible by Apple standards. I wonder if Apple Silicon Macs will help bump that number to at least 10%.

Of course they're probably making 50% of profits.

Marvin 15336 comments · 18 Years

NCrimN8R said:

You have to wonder how much of this uptick in demand is due to work and school from home. Is it sustainable?

Computers aren't impulse-buy for people with average incomes, they are like appliances. They are purchased for the long-term and people will buy them when they need a new one. Some will defer their purchases but the need won't go away.

None of the money that existed a few months ago has evaporated, it's just in different people's bank accounts. The people who are better off now will buy now, the people who are better off in a few months or next year will buy then.

Even if Apple's Mac revenue dropped catastrophically, that whole product line makes up less than 10% of their revenue:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share-revenue-of-apple/

Most of Apple's products are priced within average budgets. The ones that aren't, like 16" Macbook Pros, 27" iMacs, Mac Pros, make up less than 20% of Apple's Mac sales.

Marvin said:

NCrimN8R said:

You have to wonder how much of this uptick in demand is due to work and school from home. Is it sustainable?

Computers aren't impulse-buy for people with average incomes, they are like appliances. They are purchased for the long-term and people will buy them when they need a new one. Some will defer their purchases but the need won't go away.

None of the money that existed a few months ago has evaporated, it's just in different people's bank accounts. The people who are better off now will buy now, the people who are better off in a few months or next year will buy then.

Even if Apple's Mac revenue dropped catastrophically, that whole product line makes up less than 10% of their revenue:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share-revenue-of-apple/

Most of Apple's products are priced within average budgets. The ones that aren't, like 16" Macbook Pros, 27" iMacs, Mac Pros, make up less than 20% of Apple's Mac sales.

I would hope Apple Silicon Macs will provide more power at cheaper prices. Knowing Apple though, they'll most likely make up the difference by adding more expensive components and features.

Who doesn't want a Mac? The reason companies like Lenovo and "others" sell so much computers is because they flood the market with cheap Windows garbage and knockoff Macs at half the price.