Mac shipments grew in Q1 2022 as PC market slumped

The PC market has enjoyed two years of double-digit growth, in part spurned on by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, while the industry endured a year-on-year reduction in shipments in Q1 2022, Apple was among a group of vendors that continued to see growth in the period.

In figures released on Sunday by IDC, Apple accumulated 7.2 million shipments of Macs and MacBooks in Q1 2022. This is an increase of 4.3% year-on-year from Q1 2021, which was for 6.9 million shipments, thanks to hardware releases including the 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro.

The increase meant Apple's share of the PC market also grew, from 8.1% to 8.9%, on a backdrop of a contracting market. As an industry as a whole, PC shipments dropped 5.1% year-on-year from 84.8 million to 80.5 million.

Of Apple's competitors Lenovo is still in the top spot with a 22.7% market share, despite a 9.2% shrink in shipments to 18.3 million. Second-place HP's 15.8 million shipments is a reduction of 17.8% year-on-year, but it manages to hold onto a 19.7% market share.

Dell saw growth of 6.1% ,with its 13.7 million shipments representing a 17.1% share of the market, keeping it ahead of third-place Apple. Fifth place is considered a tie between Asus and Acer, with each having 5.5 million and 5.4 million units respectively, though while Acer dropped shipments by 5.9%, Asus saw 17.7% growth.

The overall decline is attributed to ongoing supply chain shortages, as well as a "challenging comparison to a strong 1Q21," states IDC. In April 2021, IDC said Apple's Mac business saw a 111.5% YoY jump in shipments, with the industry growing 55.2% YoY.

"The focus shouldn't be on the year-over-year decline in PC volumes because that was to be expected," said IDC group vice president. "The focus should be on the PC industry managing to ship more than 80 million PCs at a time when logistics and supply chain are still a mess, accompanied by numerous geopolitical and pandemic-related challenges."

In Apple's Q1 results in January, Mac revenue reached $10.85 billion, marking both a year-on-year increase in revenue of 25.1% and the Mac unit's first peak into double-digit billions.