While the third quarter of 2024 brought weak Mac shipments, Apple did well earlier in the year, and a return to growth is expected soon, according to a market-research firm.
Overall, the July-through-September period was anemic for the whole PC market, not just Apple.
Q3 2024 Mac shipments slip
2024 is shaping up to be a good year for Mac. Shipments experienced 14% annual growth in the first quarter, according to data from IDC, and grew 21% year-over-year in the second quarter.
But the situation wasn’t so rosy in the third quarter. Mac shipments dropped 24% when compared to the same quarter of 2023.
Analysts at IDC put the dip into perspective by saying, “Apple had a strong 1H24 and YoY comparison base before its new products are expected to launch.”
Bring on M4 Macs
The “new products” the IDC analysts mention are the MacBooks and Mac desktops running the new Apple M4 processor that are expected to launch in the coming weeks. Anticipation for these might help explain the drop in Mac demand in Q3.
In an unusual move, Apple launched the M4 chip in the iPad Pro this spring, only seven months after the M3 debut. It’s possible buyers have looked at the M3 as a “lame duck” ever since and have held off waiting for the M4 to make it to Mac.
The result is that Apple shipped 5.3 million Mac notebooks and desktops in the July-through-September period. That’s down from 7 million in the same quarter of last year.
With M4-powered Macs possibly coming November 1, Q4 could well bring a jump in Apple shipments. That’s on top of the usual boost brought by holiday shopping.
Q3 brought a dip in PC market
Few of Apple’s rivals that make Windows PCs had a strong quarter. IDC reports Lenovo’s shipments grew 3% year-over-year, but HP’s declined slightly. And Dell’s shipments dropped 4%. The sole bright spot was Asus, who experienced a 10% annual increase.
“Demand, without a doubt, has returned for PCs amongst consumers and commercial buyers,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “However, much of the demand was still concentrated at the entry-level thanks to a recovering economy and the back-to-school season in North America.”
Chart: IDC
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
