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Apple Surpassed 10% Share of Notebook Market in 2015 Amid Industry Decline

Tuesday February 16, 2016 6:46 am PST by Joe Rossignol
The latest data from research firm TrendForce shows that MacBook sales continue to gain momentum in an otherwise declining notebook market. Apple passed Asus and Acer to become the fourth-largest notebook maker in 2015, reaching 10.34 percent market share compared to 9.3 percent market share in 2014. Overall notebook shipments in 2015 were 164.4 million, down 6.3 percent from 175.5 million in 2014.

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HP and Lenovo continued to lead the notebook industry in 2015 with around 20% market share each, but Apple is now within striking distance of Dell for third place. The comparison is unbalanced, however, as Apple only sells three different MacBook models, with the cheapest being the entry-level 11-inch MacBook Air for $899, while most PC makers have a wide selection of models and price points.

TrendForce-2015-Notebooks
“HP and Lenovo will still be rivaling for the top spot in the notebook market during 2016,” said TrendForce notebook analyst Anita Wang. “HP has a good chance of holding the most market share this year and maintaining its leadership position because of the relatively stronger U.S. market. Dell will likely retain third place in the notebook shipment ranking for this year. As for ASUS, Apple and Acer, their struggle for the fourth, fifth and sixth positions in the 2016 ranking will be fierce since they have similar market shares of just around 10%.”
These numbers mirror overall PC market data shared by Gartner last month. Apple made it back into Gartner's list of top 5 worldwide PC vendors in the fourth quarter of 2015, although the company remains behind Asus with a lower 7.5% market share when factoring in desktop and other non-notebook PC sales. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 75.7 million units in Q4 2015, an 8.3 percent decline.

Apple is expected to introduce new Skylake-based Mac notebooks featuring Thunderbolt 3 with USB-C later this year. Intel has announced Skylake chips appropriate for the 13" MacBook Pro, 15" MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and 12" MacBook over the past year.

Opportunities for major product introductions could come at WWDC, likely scheduled for mid-June, although smaller updates could come at any time via press release. New Macs could also debut at Apple's rumored March 15 media event if there is enough stage time alongside the iPhone 5se, iPad Air 3, and Apple Watch updates.

Tag: TrendForce
[ 149 comments ]

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brendu
48 months ago
This isn't surprising. They make among the best laptops available.
Rating: 20 Votes
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barnesy99
48 months ago

This isn't surprising. They make [s]among[/s] the best laptops available.


;)
Rating: 19 Votes
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gramtrax
48 months ago
Ugh, those story intro graphics are cruel. Everytime I see one I think "yay!" Apple has finally gotten off their %$# and updated their notebook line.
Rating: 11 Votes
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Petey-Pete
48 months ago
Imagine if apple actually focused on improving its macbook line-up, the way it does with the iPhone. Apple would be the top computer vendor.
Rating: 8 Votes
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shareef777
48 months ago
Damn it! Saw the pics of the laptops on the front page and thought there was a release. Going to go back crying in my corner!
Rating: 6 Votes
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djcerla
48 months ago
Still, there is huge room for growth.

A generation raised with iPods, Macbooks and iPhones is only starting to reach decisional power in businesses; these people know very well how cheap is a Mac vs. a PC in the long run.

A paradigm shift is well underway, mostly undetected by incumbents.
Rating: 6 Votes
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AppleScruff1
48 months ago
Has anyone posted, who cares about market share, Apple makes the most profit?
Rating: 5 Votes
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cwt1nospam
48 months ago

MacBooks have nice hardware, but limitations in business software for OS X still relegate them to niche departments.
Mainly marketing and media.

The "business" market is where computer makers go to die. Apple is right not to focus on it. They should continue to take what sales they get in it, but concentrate on other, profitable markets.
Rating: 5 Votes
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melendezest
48 months ago
Good to see Apple gain market share here.

There's still no (real) replacement for a Mac portable out there that is not a Mac portable.

That said, the uptick puts Apple in the position of not really updating/redesigning anything; these things sell themselves, so it'll probably be same-old same-old.

Here's to hoping for a 17" MBP (unlikely), thinner bezels and better screens throughout (especially on the Air), bigger storage options, USB-C/TB3 ports throughout their line (more than one, please), and no loss of current features (also unlikely).
Rating: 4 Votes
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bondsbw
48 months ago
Using these figures, Apple shipments went up by a little less than 0.1M units in 2 years. Compare with others that went up:


Lenovo: up 1.1M units
Others: up 0.8M units
Dell: up 0.7M units

And here's who went down:

Toshiba: down 9.0M units
acer: down 3.2M units
HP: down 2.3M units
ASUS: down 2.3M units
Sony: down 1.1M units (discontinued)
Samsung: down 0.9M units

Poor Toshiba.
Rating: 4 Votes

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