Apple's Mac continues to grow in supply-constrained PC market

Apple shipped an estimated 7.82 million Mac units during the third calendar quarter of 2021, up 14.4% year-over-year, according to new PC market data.

The Cupertino tech giant came in fourth among the top global PC makers, behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell in that order. Apple accounted for 9.3% of the market in the third quarter, which corresponds to the company's fourth fiscal quarter, according to new data from research firm Canalys.

Apple's growth clocked in among the best during the period, behind only Dell's 26.7% annual growth. HP actually lost market share during the quarter, and Lenovo grew 2.5% year-over-year.

The pandemic-era boom in the PC market may be coming to an end, spurred largely by supply constraints, Canalys reports. The global PC market grew by 5% in Q3 and hit a total of 84.1 million shipments. That's down from the double-digit growth that the PC market saw for five straight quarters.

"Disruption to the global supply chain and logistics network remains the key inhibitor of higher growth in the PC market. More than a year on from the onset of the pandemic, manufacturing continues to be hindered by lockdowns and other COVID-19 related restrictions, particularly in Asia," said Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt. "This has been compounded by a massive slowdown in global transportation with freight prices and delay times skyrocketing as a number of industries compete to meet unfulfilled demand."

The analyst says that the shortfall in PC supply will last "well into 2022." Additionally, the holiday season could see a significant portion of unmet orders.

"Vendors able to manage this period of operational upheaval by diversifying production and distribution and having better visibility of orders to prioritize device allocation will be equipped to ride out the storm," Dutt wrote.

Apple is set to announce its own quarterly earnings results on Oct. 28, though the company no longer reports individual unit sales. The company is also largely expected to debut new Mac models by the end of 2021, including Apple Silicon-based MacBook Pro devices.

9 Comments

tht 5594 comments · 23 Years

About 3 years ago

I'm really curious where all these Macs are going and what people are using them for. The vast majority is probably web applications with lots of MS Office (students, home user et al). Some significant chunk are using them in STEM fields (python, MS Office), and probably a good chunk for web development and Apple platform app development. These new machines are also riding a new market of "work from home", whose penetration will surely finish sooner or later.

Then, what is the current Apple Silicon versus Intel split? Probably 2 Apple Silicon Macs to 1 Intel or so per usual, if the ASP is around $1300.

Apple still needs a platform service that only they provide on Macs, or do the best job on Macs, as a way to encourage more sales, and to give them a chance for 15% marketshare. Don't know what this app or service could be, but they will need it to grow ever more. Then, there would be a better chance for them to fill holes in the current Mac lineup. A MBA14 or MBA15 model is needed. They still should have a modular headless box for around $1500.

montrosemacs 118 comments · 17 Years

About 3 years ago

Slightly OT, but crikey, trying to be patient, but where in the heck are those new M1x 14" and 16" Macbook Pros?? Were all the rumors wrong??

Marvin 15335 comments · 18 Years

About 3 years ago

montrosemacs said:

Slightly OT, but crikey, trying to be patient, but where in the heck are those new M1x 14" and 16" Macbook Pros?? Were all the rumors wrong??

It'll be 2 years next month since the last major 16" MBP update. The Mac event last year was in November, the suggestions of an October event are just guesswork based on the fact that people are desperate for an update and Apple has had events in October before.

They've never had an event later than November for product launches and that makes sense to avoid issues over Christmas so I'd expect 9th November at the latest. It could be announced tomorrow for next week. There's only really 4 dates left - 19th, 26th October, 2nd, 9th November.

These Macs make up a smaller fraction of the Mac userbase. The Air and 13" Pro probably account for 60% of units and the 21" iMac around 15% so with the M1 they covered around 75% of Mac users.
The 27" iMac and Mac Pro users wouldn't benefit much from Apple Silicon, it would be mostly a side-step performance-wise. Prices can come down in higher-end models.

The 16" MBPs are likely around 15-20% of units and are most in need of the update but it's understandable why they are lower priority. It would have been good if they'd announced the new chip at WWDC because then people would at least have been able to talk about it and what it was capable of.

They might refresh the M1 chip too as they can get similar gains for M1 as A15 vs A14.

FileMakerFeller 1561 comments · 6 Years

About 3 years ago

tht said:

I'm really curious where all these Macs are going and what people are using them for. The vast majority is probably web applications with lots of MS Office (students, home user et al). Some significant chunk are using them in STEM fields (python, MS Office), and probably a good chunk for web development and Apple platform app development. These new machines are also riding a new market of "work from home", whose penetration will surely finish sooner or later.

Then, what is the current Apple Silicon versus Intel split? Probably 2 Apple Silicon Macs to 1 Intel or so per usual, if the ASP is around $1300.

Apple still needs a platform service that only they provide on Macs, or do the best job on Macs, as a way to encourage more sales, and to give them a chance for 15% marketshare. Don't know what this app or service could be, but they will need it to grow ever more. Then, there would be a better chance for them to fill holes in the current Mac lineup. A MBA14 or MBA15 model is needed. They still should have a modular headless box for around $1500.

I'm not so sure - I think the best move to drive growth will be to win over corporate IT departments, who currently view Macs as more difficult to administer (spoiler: they are indeed harder to manage centrally) and only support them because they are forced to. It's a difficult needle to thread, especially in industries where there are legal requirements for data management and where IT is viewed as a cost centre and not a source of improved efficiency. But IBM keep touting the reduced management costs of their Apple gear, so maybe there's hope.

davesnothere 3 comments · 3 Years

About 3 years ago

Marvin said:

They've never had an event later than November for product launches and that makes sense to avoid issues over Christmas so I'd expect 9th November at the latest. It could be announced tomorrow for next week. There's only really 4 dates left - 19th, 26th October, 2nd, 9th November.

Once, since Steve's return, Apple released an ipod (4th or 5th I believe) on Thanksgiving weekend. They've never announced anything past the first week of November other than speed bumps since then.

There were no accessories for grandma to buy, new ipods weren't protected, and the case manufacturers and Apple missed out on sales. Everyone was pissed. It used to take a minimum of 4 weeks to get 3rd party accessories after an announcement.