Mac & iPad had a tough quarter in Europe, but better than everybody else's

The Western European PC market got hammered in the last quarter, but both the Mac and iPad fared better than hardware from other companies.

Notebook shipments are dropping worldwide, driven by economic factors such as inflation and fears of recession. For example, Apple only shipped 171,000 Macs in India during quarter four of 2022.

However, the company did better in Western Europe during the same timeframe, though it still placed fourth among the top five companies. The latest report from Canalys tracks PC shipments which include desktops, notebooks, and workstations.

For Apple, the company shipped 1.4 million Macs in quarter four, behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell at 2.9 million, 2.5 million, and 1.6 million, respectively. Asus, in last place, had 900,000 shipments.

Apple had the same place in fourth for overall shipments in 2022 with 6.3 million Macs. Lenovo, HP, and Dell were again ahead at 13.9 million, 12.2 million, and 7.3 million, respectively.

Customers in Western Europe had some enthusiasm for Apple's tablet. In the top position for quarter four, Apple shipped 3.4 million iPads, beating Samsung, Amazon, Lenovo, and Huawei at 1.4 million, 500,000, 400,000, and 200,000, respectively.

But it had the same number of iPad shipments as quarter four of 2021, so ultimately, Apple had zero growth year-over-year in shipments, although it had a larger market share in 2022 at 51.8% compared to 43.3% in 2021.

The company also led tablet shipments for the overall year at 11.1 million. However, that's a 16% decline from the 13.4 million shipments it had in 2021.

Apple shipped 39% fewer Macs in quarter four of 2022 than in quarter three.

Canalys expects PC shipments to Western Europe to drop a further 7% in 2023 before returning to 12% growth in 2024. And tablets are expected to fare worse, with shipments declining 10% this year and rebounding to just 4% growth next year.

The report from Canalys arrives around the same time as the claim that production of the M2 chip is down due to a decline in Mac sales. Although the data from Canalys doesn't go into specific processors, Apple has shipped fewer Macs and iPads compared to 2021 — at least in some markets.