Having long defied the rest of the declining PC industry, Mac sales have finally begun to fall. A new report from Gartner claims Mac sales declined 4.9 percent in this year’s second quarter.
If correct, this means Apple sold “just” 4.6 million units in the second three-month stretch of 2016. Although that’s still less of a drop than the overall 5.2 percent seen worldwide across the entire PC industry, it’s still a bad sign at a time when iPhone sales are seeing a similar decline.
North America was the only part of the world that didn’t experience a decline in PC shipments over the quarter. The biggest loser was the Latin American region, which suffered a drop of more than 20 percent compared to the same period last year.
Lenovo held onto its No. 1 position in worldwide PC shipments, although it too saw a 2.2 percent dip in unit sales since Q2 last year. Apple is battling it out with Asus and Acer for fourth place in terms of worldwide PC shipments.
Whether the arrival of macOS Sierra — Apple’s best desktop operating system yet — can help reverse the trend this fall remains to be seen. However, it appears that for now even the so-called “halo effect” of the Apple brand name, and the popularity of other devices like the iPhone and iPad, isn’t enough to make Apple immune to the overall downward trend in the PC market.
Source: 247WallStreet
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Mac sales take a tumble in second quarter of 2016”
My 4 year old Macbook Pro has the same chip as the current models. The video cards are woefully lacking causing both Oculus and Blizzard, originally large supporters of the Mac, to pass on support with their recent releases. What used to be a premium product has become something that feels more like Apple has better things to do. This is not surprising news. This is what happens when other people make better products. Apple needs to make a change.
I could not agree more. The drop in sales is directly related to extremely long upgrade cycles and no support for the latest tech. Apple has lost its mojo. Downward spiral?
Yeah ! It’s cuz Cook is a snail ! Take a looooooooong time to update all the products in all the categories.
My MBA is very old and tired, but I need to wait new MBP because this new MB12 sux totally ! And I bought a iphone 6s few weeks ago because I know that the new iPhone 7 will not be big deal. Oled is something very usual (and old) in many smartphones and only on the next year we will have an iPhone with a technology that’s actually old ? really , Tim ?
I think the major reason why international sales have declined as opposed to domestic demand is the strengthening of the Dollar against most currencies. A lot of countries are feeling it bad, and surging import taxes aren’t helping much.
So there are two things Apple needs to take a look at. Either they’re going to adjust pricing for different markets, or they’re going to sell the best computer money can buy – especially with regards to graphics quality. It’s about time Apple begins taking gaming hardware seriously, because they have the rest of the industry primed to follow. Also more frequent hardware refreshes would be awesome.
What a ****ing surprise. You go to macrumors buyers guide and 6 out of 7 mac products are in the ‘don’t buy’ category. Find me another Tech company that has this kind of line up. Apple you are a shamble.
I am glad your mac sales are falling, and it would be a lot worse for Q3, and you bloody deserve it.
Get your act together, and do your users some justice!
Crap graphics. What do you expect?