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U.S. Mac Sales Down in June Despite Introduction of New MacBook Airs

Monday July 22, 2013 12:13 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has released a new report covering the full June quarter Mac and iPod sales data from market research firm NPD.

According to the data, Apple's Mac sales came in down 5% year over year, despite the introduction of the newest Haswell-based MacBook Airs at this year's WWDC. During the same time period last year, Apple unveiled both upgraded MacBook Airs and the new Retina MacBook Pro, so it seems the lack of a refreshed MacBook Pro lineup may have impacted sales for the quarter.

mac_lineup_early2013
As with his previous reports, Munster notes that it remains difficult to extrapolate NPD data to Apple's global sales performance, but he views the June data as "neutral to slightly negative," down from slightly positive in a May report.
We note that we had expected an uptick in Mac sales in the month of June given updated Macbook Airs at WWDC; however, Mac units were [down] 12% y/y for the month of June according to NPD. Based on the differences between NPD data and Apple reported Mac sales over the past few quarters, we note it is becoming more difficult to draw conclusions from NPD data.
Munster stands by his belief that iPads will continue to cannibalize Mac sales and sticks with his prediction of 5% year over year decline in Mac sales for the June quarter. Macs are currently responsible for less than 15% of Apple's total revenue.

As for iPods, Munster's analysis of NPD data suggests that units are down 32% year over year, while the Piper Jaffray estimate suggests that sales are down 23% year over year on a global basis. However, as iPods only represent 2% of Apple's revenue, the overall impact of the sales decline is minor.

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zedsdead
76 months ago
A lot of people, including myself, are waiting for update rMBPs.

Add to that the entire desktop line is outdated, and that doesn't help the Mac at all.

Plus most of the Mac software has been neglected for years.

Thankfully updates are coming and they started with Logic X which was great.

Cannot wait for a new iWork, however I have fears it'll be a crippled iOS version ported to the desktop.
Rating: 16 Votes
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sonicrobby
76 months ago
I think its because people are waiting for the Macbook Pro refreshes.
Rating: 15 Votes
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pearvsapple
76 months ago
There's simply no reason to upgrade for 2011-2012 owners.
Rating: 14 Votes
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iapplelove
76 months ago

I think its because everyone is holding out for the Haswell versions of the pros


Most of the public has no idea what haswell will even do for them. Imo price is the big factor
Rating: 8 Votes
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bushido
76 months ago
once the market is saturated with iPhones apple is kinda screwed ... just look at macs and iPods now. something better/new is gonna come along at some point and i hope its apple

i dont want them to pull a nokia
Rating: 8 Votes
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Razeus
76 months ago

What exactly is outdated about the current iMac?


Besides the 5200 RPM drives?

SSD should be standard, but I understand Apple fears people may want to have more storage on a desktop, so therfore we have fusion drives. Fine, but fusion drives should have been standard WITH 7200 RPM drives. In the year 2013, 5200RPM drives should not even be considered.

Besides 512MB of VRAM?

PC cards are starting to come in 4GB allocations! iMacs, for the price they are charging, should have 1GB standard. Instead, Apple uses binned parts that doesn't pass Nvidia inspections and therefore we have only 512MB of VRAM on our cards.

Besides the GPU itself?

Isn't the baseline 640M SLOWER than last years (2011 models) baseline? Of the two baseline 21.5 models, the 650M and the 660M should have been used as standard, both with 1GB of VRAM. On the 27's, the 675MX with 1GB of VRAM and the 680 with 2GB of VRAM should have been standard in their base.
Rating: 8 Votes
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Razeus
76 months ago

I would call that overpriced, not "out of date".

What you can get in a PC does mean anyone buys it. I personally am in trenched in the technology business and I know precisely 1 person with a graphics card in their PC that has more than 2 GB of VRAM. Don't overvalue things that are virtually unnecessary.

I agree that the Fusion Drive should absolutely be standard, and I won't buy and iMac as long as they're not.[COLOR="#808080"]


To be honest, when my new iMac comes in (fusion drive, 16GB RAM, 650M), I may return it. I really don't think I should have spent $1800 after tax on a computer with 5200RPM drive, fusion or not. I think I need to wait and see if the 2013's on the SSD standard or at least come with a 7200RPM drive.

In fact, what I was so irritated about was that the 21.5 DOES come with an SSD only option, but they want $300 on top of the $1499. So let me get this straight: I build a computer with a HARD DRIVE and it costs $1500. Ok cool. But then I opt for an SSD, it costs another $300? What about the discount for the HARD DRIVE that got replaced? Did Apple forget I'm basically "returning" the hard drive? They basically are saying we are still charging you for the HARD DRIVE even though you are not getting one.

Apple is being to sneaky/greedy with their pricing and it's turning people off.
Rating: 8 Votes
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chadley_chad
76 months ago

I think it's simple.... Computer sales are bad across the board for the most part. Their lasting longer and it's just not needed to upgrade a computer all the time. Plus, I think many customers are moving to mobile computing which again is slowing desktop and laptop sales.

Apple needs to continue it's focus on iPhones and iPads to win and they need to give their current customers a good reason to upgrade their workstations and laptops... maybe that will come soon?


When you have a company only concerned with making desktops thinner - and reducing functionality (removal of optical drives etc), instead of addressing other issues, it's hardly surprising!
Rating: 6 Votes
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lhotka
76 months ago

You don't buy iMacs with the intention of replacing the HDD or SSD or FSD.


Which was one of the dumbest design decisions Apple ever made. The most likely part to fail, isn't end-user replaceable (and when you take it to Apple, you can only get the same, limited options - not an upgrade).
Rating: 6 Votes
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newdeal
76 months ago
They have a serious hole in their lineup as people are still resistant to drop the optical drive. I don't mind not having one on a laptop but many people do and the old style pro just looks ancient next to the air (no optical drive) and the rMBP (too expensive and no optical drive). The iMac never should have lost its drive as it was simply to make it APPEAR thin which was imo a very poor choice. Also the less cool that iPhones are the less people will want to buy macs and imo iPhones are appearing less cool all the time due to their stale hardware. Apple needs to take this seriously, they still make a ton of money but the slope is slippery just ask RIM. The reason is certainly NOT that people are waiting for a refresh. Only people on here do that and techies are the minority of Apples customers, the average person doesn't know what Haswell is, and doesn't know that there is a refresh due, and doesn't know that a macbook pro from this year vs from 3 years ago is different because they all look the same and all browse the web and send emails and watch youtube equally well. Also they haven't been pushing the malware aspect in a few years which I honestly think those ads made people buy macs over windows and Apple marketing has abandoned them
Rating: 6 Votes

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