Australian Mac, iPad sales outpace softening PC market

By Malcolm Owen

Apple's Mac sales continued to be strong in Australia thanks to Apple Silicon, with it seeing continued headway in a PC market that softened in 2021.

The Mac and MacBook range has enjoyed high growth in the region, reportedly driven by the switch to Apple Silicon. In a report about the overall Australian PC and tablet market, Apple is still seeing "standout" increases in that market.

Analysts firm Telsyte said 36% of Australians who want to upgrade in 2022 are considering buying Apple hardware using Apple Silicon, reports ARN. The claim continues a similar trend from 2020, which had Mac demand rise year-on-year by 16%.

The iPad catalog also benefited from the Apple Silicon influx, with 23% of iPads sold in 2021 in Australia using M1. Approximately 53.6% of tablets sold in the year were iPads, against Windows tablets at 28.5%, Android at 16%, and ChromeOS at 2%.

Mac sales grew 17% year-on-year in 2021, despite the market going into a decline of 2.3% that year to 4 million sales. By contrast, the tablet market saw a 1.4% rise to 3.4 million.

The Australian market echoes similar reports for other parts of the world. In April, a Gartner report pointed out that the global PC market shrank 7.3% in Q1 2022, but Apple still saw an 8.6% year-on-year rise in shipments in that time period.

That report also reckoned the EMEA PC market dropped 6.3% YoY for the quarter, though with Asia Pacific shipments up 4.1%.