Apple Continues to Outpace Slumping PC Market in 3Q 2015

The PC market continues to slide, according to the latest estimates, and while Apple is seeing only a small gain or loss in shipments year-over-year depending on who is doing the counting, the Mac maker continues to outpace the overall market.

gartner_3Q15_global

Gartner's Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q15 (Thousands of Units)
Gartner's numbers show Apple shipping 5.6 million Macs worldwide during the third quarter, an increase of 1.5 percent over the third quarter of 2014 and good enough for fourth place with 7.6 percent of the market, placing behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell. The global market as a whole saw a 7.7 percent decline in shipments, with only Dell at 0.5 percent joining Apple among top vendors with shipment growth.

gartner_3Q15_us

Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q15 (Thousands of Units)
In the U.S., Gartner estimates Apple's shipments grew 7.3 percent to 2.5 million, ahead of the market's 1.3 percent growth. Apple ranked third with 14.8 percent of the market, although Lenovo is rapidly closing with strong U.S. sales growth.

gartner_3Q15_us_trend

Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-3Q15 (Gartner)
Compared to Gartner, IDC predicts steeper losses for the PC market, pegging the global shipment decline at 10.8 percent year-over-year with Apple falling 3.4 percent. That was, however, still good enough for fourth place worldwide with 7.5 percent of the market. IDC's U.S. numbers put Apple at 1.6 percent growth, reaching 13.7 percent share to edge out Lenovo as the third largest seller of PCs while the overall U.S. market fell 0.7 percent.

A better picture of Apple's Mac shipments will come on October 27 when the company reports earnings for the typically strong back-to-school quarter.

Tags: IDC, Gartner

Top Rated Comments

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macduke

43 months ago

I don't need a new Mac but want to run 4K or higher. Still waiting out Skylake iMacs to see how they're spec'd and priced.

I think the reason for the PC market decline is more than just smartphones and tablets. Just the computers themselves are now fast enough that most people just don't need to upgrade. You only need so many GHz to read your email. What is the software benefit from that extra speed for most people? The people who actually need the speed aside from gamers are professional photographers, video editors, and musicians. They generally buy Macs. Researchers generally run simulations on high end servers. Many gamers build their own box (I used to).

Rating: 7 Votes

liven2

43 months ago

It will make do difference to investors... The stock will still get hammered and market manipulation will still continue. Apple stock will be below $100 soon. This has been a Trend for some time as it is how the 1% make their money. :(

Rating: 4 Votes

nelsonammo

43 months ago

Wow 15% marketshare in the US. That's gotta be their highest ever since the Apple II days, no?

Rating: 2 Votes

Zirel

43 months ago

Really, are you sure it’s not just your emotion spoeaking here?

Yes.

Despite overwhelming success and no signs of it to stop, "presstitutes", still claim that's not good enough, and that they didn't meet "estimations" (from whom?) and Apple achievements, like managing to enter China very successfully (with a strong respect for the Chinese citizen and the Chinese government), are turned into negatives "they only sell X because they are selling it to the Chinese"

There's a cottage industry of blogs and YouTube channels that only exist for the main purpose of badmouthing Apple. "Apple Music has failed" on Forbes, "Apple wants to free the world of Free Music" on The Verge, etc.

Despite double digits growth, AAPL has a P/E bellow 13, while Google, with barely 10% growth, and Microsoft, with negative growth, have P/Es over 30!

Apple should just buy all their stock, be free of Wall Street, and let Jony Ive make even thinner iPhones and etc...

Wall Street is too dumb, too gullible, too ignorant for AAPL.

Rating: 2 Votes

AdonisSMU

43 months ago

Security through obscurity is not really security. Apple's vigilance regarding security is the only answer to hackers. Vendors will always be responding to whatever hackers devise, and they (hackers) are always devising new and more insidious attacks. Security, be it for Macs or PCs, is an never ending game of leap frog. I would hope members of this community wouldn't be susceptible to the naivete of complete Mac immunity. Less immune yes. That's a combination of smaller marketshare and Apple's vigilance; primarily vigilance in my opinion.

On topic: Macduke said it nicely. Device capability is outstriping general consumer needs. Outside of niche power users, a mid range PC/Mac from 2012 can still meet the needs of the vast majority of the consuming public.

Thats it in a nutshell. I bought my sis a top of the line iPad instead of a new computer earlier this year.

Rating: 2 Votes

H2SO4

43 months ago

Apple stock has been the most manipulated stock in history - after the price of gold.

Really, are you sure it’s not just your emotion spoeaking here?

Rating: 2 Votes

69Mustang

43 months ago

Good news for Apple, but I have a selfish reason not to be too excited about Macs gaining ground. With more Macs in consumer's hands, the incentive for hackers increases to divert their attention from the world's most prevalent computers, the PCs, to the Mac, and that can't be good news for the Mac community.

Contrary to some poster's beliefs, Macs are not immune from malware, spyware, viruses, worms or trojan horses. Utter vigilance is still required when opening attachments or installing software, and even that can fall short as recently evidenced by the compromised XcodeGhost Malware debacle.

Rating: 2 Votes

Mums

43 months ago

Thank you for speaking the truth. Refreshing to read around here. Apple stock has been the most manipulated stock in history - after the price of gold. I wonder if Tim Cook even knows that Apple was converted into a colossal cash cow immediately after Steve Jobs' death.

Rating: 2 Votes

appledefenceforce

43 months ago

but.. but... according to the internet Windows is better and OSX and Mac are useless??

Rating: 2 Votes

NT1440

43 months ago

They have stated some years ago that they are full of that **** that where they innovate and everyone else copies.

They are now focusing on copying everyone else, but doing a better job.

The result, you can turn a blind eye to Force Touch, and their haptics research, but once you look at the competition, you can see that nobody else is also not innovating!

I fail to see how designing their own timing chip, form factor (Mac Pro), lowest latency stylus around, mobile processors that are literally at least a year ahead of the competition, etc.

Yes Apple may have products that aren't the first, but the engineering that they pour into their implementation is the furthest thing from "copying" I can think of. Anyone could have gone the Dell route and hacked the DisplayPort standard to make a 5K display (with two plugs, lazy engineering), Apple chose to design their own chip which, SURPRISE, is the reason they are able to drive the display on the iPad Pro. I've never seen a company with a more deliberate R&D strategy that slowly but surely applies to other product lines.

EDIT: Upon review I think I may have missed the mark on your post. My points are valid, but a careful reading makes me think you were saying Apple IS innovating. My apologies if I misunderstood.

Rating: 1 Votes

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