Malcolm Owen
While Windows AI PCs are slowly catching up, Mac still has a considerable lead in AI-capable PC shipments.
The machine learning capabilities of Apple Silicon, including its Neural Engine, has been a massive help for Apple in capturing market share for its Mac lineup. Within the subcategory of AI-capable PCs, it's clearly dominating the field.
In a February 25 report on AI-capable PCs from Canalys, the market for computers with AI capabilities is growing quickly. In Q4 2024, such computers account for 23% of overall PC shipments during the quarter.
Across the entire year, AI-capable PCs made up 17% of the total market in 2024.
Drilled down to manufacturer, Apple made up 45% of AI-capable PC shipments in Q4 2024. Apple Silicon also accounted for 10.2% of the total PC market, including non-AI hardware.
On a full-year basis, Apple continued to keep a massive lead over its competitors. Across all of 2024, Apple secured a massive 54% of the AI-capable market, with Lenovo and HP in distant joint second place at 12% each, and Windows PCs occupying 46% overall.
More growth expected
Over the course of the year, Windows-based AI PC shipments grew, while Apple's shipments seemingly maintained over the same period. This was apparently driven by continued momentum in commercial deployments later in the cycle for Windows systems.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Copilot+Moving onward, the Windows segment is expected to benefit from the deadline for the end of support for Windows 10. It is apparently emerging as "the primary refresh catalyst among partners," according to Canalys analyst Kieren Jessop.
On the Mac side, Apple's legacy M-series models are seeing price reductions. Jessop adds that this is helping grow commercial share for Apple, including in emerging markets.
The introduction of Apple Intelligence will also be helpful in the future, but seemingly not by that much. While AI capabilities aren't a primary purchasing driver, Jessop writes that improved AI processing performance will make personalized experiences and productivity gains more important.
"Over time, this could influence brand loyalty, shaping customers' decisions for future device upgrades," he reasons.
Apple's channel strategy is also going to evolve later in 2025 with the introduction of the Apple Partner Network. The revamped program simplified partner tiers in the Enterprise segment, while also highlighting compatibility and scalability, which should help bring in more corporate business.
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7 Comments
This depends heavily on whether you consider a computer with any NPU to be an “AI PC” or whether, like Microsoft, you have put a baseline down. If you use Microsoft’s requirement for 40 TOPs, you get Apple selling exactly zero capable AI PCs… there is so much conflation and chest thumping going on in ML at the moment that it’s hard to get an idea of who makes what and whether (and how much) it matters.
This headline makes me laugh. It infers people are buying more Macs than PC's because of AI when in fact, it just happens all Mac's are AI-capable whereas all PC's are not.
I don't think most people buy a Mac or PC for it's AI capabilities (some do, but not most).
Not to mention (the article certainly didn't) that Apple's AI (Apple Intellegence) is far behind most other players in the AI space.
Apple designs an engineers, both hardware and software in house. They have always been able to do more with less tech bureaucracy hanging about particularly with the introduction of the M1 Mac’s with Apple Silicon an advantage which will continue into to the future…..