Apple’s U.S. Mac sales changed around 7.5% during the first quarter of 2013, according to research firms IDC and Gartner, but neither agree on whether they were up or down. While IDC reports that shipments were down 7.5% during January to April, Gartner sales that sales were up 7.4%. So who’s right?
Well, that won’t be completely clear until Apple announces its second fiscal quarter financial results on April 23, but Wall Street analysts have predicted that global Mac sales (which aren’t the same as shipments) will decline year-over-year.
Domestic Mac sales — that’s just those sold in the U.S. — may have risen 14% year-over-year, according to another report from NDP Group. That’s thanks to Apple’s new iMac, which has been selling well now that the initial supply constraints have been resolved.
Part of the reason why global Mac sales are down, according to IDC, is the “cannibalization” being caused by the iPad. Consumers are increasingly turning to tablets instead of PCs for home computing, and the iPad is the most popular there is. But this isn’t something that will be too much of a concern to Apple.
In fact, the Cupertino company has been quite positive about it. “If we don’t cannibalize it, someone else will,” CEO Tim Cook said to Wall Street investors back in February.
One thing IDC and Gartner did agree on is that Apple’s fared better than HP, whose computer sales were down 23.7% or 23.3% (depending on which report you listen to) during the first quarter. HP still saw the most shipments overall, however.
Source: CNET
