Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Apple grew Mac shipments & marketshare in strong fourth quarter for PCs

Apple MacBook Pro and Mac Pro

Total PC shipments exceeded 90 million for the second year in a row in the fourth quarter of 2021, with Apple's Mac lineup seeing solid growth in Q4, according to analytics firm Canalys.

The latest data suggests that worldwide shipments of desktops, laptops, and workstations reached 92 million in Q4 2021, up 1% year-over-year from 91 million. That brings total shipments for 2021 to 341 million units, up 15% from 2020 and 27% from 2019, Canalys reported.

Apple shipped an estimated 7.8 million Macs in the fourth quarter, marking annual growth of 9% from the year prior. The company had a 7.2% share of the market in Q4 2021, up slightly from 6.8% in Q4 2020.

Among global PC vendors, Apple came in fourth behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell. It ranked ahead of Acer.

Throughout the entire 2021 calendar year, Canalys estimates that Apple shipped 28.9 million Mac models, a year-over-year increase of 28.3%. Apple had an 8.5% market share in 2021, again coming in fourth behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

Apple's only new Mac on the quarter was the Apple Silicon 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. The newest model prior to that was the Apple Silicon iMac, released in April of 2021.

According to the firm, the PC market's two-year compound annual growth of 13% underscored how dramatically the Covid-19 pandemic boosted sales of notebooks and desktops. Canalys also says that the growth in the PC market isn't likely to stop in 2022.

"While 2021 was the year of digital transformation, 2022 will be the year of digital acceleration," said analyst Rushabh Doshi. "We will see revenue growth in the industry from spending on premium PCs, monitors, accessories and other technology products that enable us to work from anywhere, collaborate around the world and remain ultra-productive."