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Apple Sees Notebook Shipments Increase Year on Year in Q1 2017

Monday May 22, 2017 6:08 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Apple's notebook shipments totaled an estimated 3.4 million units in the first quarter of the 2017 calendar year, representing a year-on-year increase of 15.4 percent, according to new data published by market research firm TrendForce.

Shipments of MacBooks and MacBook Pros actually declined 15.8 percent against the previous quarter of 2016, reflecting a somewhat similar decline for the overall notebook market over the same period, however the company's Q1 2017 numbers indicated strong demand in terms of a year-on-year increase in overall MacBook shipments.

Apple shipped 3.4 million units of MacBook devices this first quarter and claimed fifth place in the ranking. The latest generation of MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, which was released in last year's fourth quarter, was well-received by consumers and contributed significantly to the overall MacBook shipments. As a result, first-quarter MacBook shipments, while representing a 15.8% decline versus the prior quarter, also showed a year-on-year increase of 15.4%.

HP, Lenovo, Dell, and Asus all suffered marginal market share declines compared to Q4 2016, but Apple's share stayed level over the last two quarters, enabling it to maintain fifth place in the shipment rankings. However sixth-placed Acer gained 0.8 percent ground on Apple over the same period, which TrendForce put down to expanded stocking of notebooks by channel distributors in anticipation of increased device production costs.

TrendForce estimates that MacBook shipments for the second quarter of 2017 will grow by more than 10 percent compared with the first quarter. The firm attributes this projection to suggestions that Apple will update its 12-inch MacBook with a new processor and the possibility of promotional pricing for some older models.

Recent rumors suggest Apple could be planning to announce refreshes for both the MacBook and MacBook Pro at June's Worldwide Developers Conference. The notebooks are expected to be updated with faster Kaby Lake processors, an update from the Skylake processors in the current machines. Apple is also said to be considering updating the MacBook Air with new internals, as sales of Apple's most affordable notebook have remained surprisingly strong.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, MacBook

Tag: TrendForce

Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Caution), MacBook (Don't Buy)

Top Rated Comments

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Mr. Dee

24 months ago

The vast majority are probably the 2015 MBPs.

Rating: 21 Votes

NinjaHERO

24 months ago

After almost 2 years of no Macbook Pro update, I would have expected much higher sales. Seems like the new Macbook Pro isn't the huge success this article claims. I'm curious to see what Apple does to appease the Pro demographic.

Rating: 17 Votes

WBRacing

24 months ago

I would love to upgrade my MBPr, but to buy a new one for me right now would be a downgrade.

Key items for me like the SDCard slot (which I use for extra storage with a MicroSD) and HDMI port for presentations have been removed. Differentiators like the magsafe charger are gone too.

I see undemanding consumers saying on forums "it's gone so deal with it", like when anyone mentions the removal of the 3.5mm headphone socket on the iPhone 7, a device I would have almost certainly purchased. For me it is a necessity, and I am not prepared to start buying loads of additional dongles just to work around a devices deficiencies.

Personally, I am dealing with it, I deal with it by not handing over my money. Assuming I am not the only one, I wonder though, what the shipments and profits could be. I mean, would anyone not buy an iPhone becuase it does have a headphone socket?

Rating: 11 Votes

Steve121178

24 months ago

How about shipping a MacBook Pro that the users actually want?

Rating: 10 Votes

Peperino

24 months ago

Quite funny how they say that the new Macbook was well received ...?
They can lie to themselves but not to us. The Macbook was one of the worst received hardware ever in Apple history.
So bad that Phil Schiller came a week after release with promotions for the adaptors...
Several of pro users I know that got one actually return them.

That is why the demand for Macbook Air remained strong. Becuase the Macbook Pros are a disaster.

If Macbooks are that good why were the shipments of Macbooks declined 15.8%.

Apple....Time for a reality check...

Innovation in Apple just came down to internal updates...(procesor updates, memory upgrade, etc).
What a shame...

Rating: 9 Votes

Peperino

24 months ago

New MBP comes out, MacRumors audience seems to hate it in unison. Everybody convinces themselves that it will be a huge flop.

Q4 2016 numbers come out: actually, it seems to be a success.
MR audience reaction: Must be a fluke. Pent-up demand. Would have been so much higher still if the MBP wasn’t garbage.

Q1 2017 numbers come out: up and to the right again. Pretty clearly, this thing is a success.
MR audience reaction: Fake news! The breakdown must be different than what the analysts who spent actual time and money on this to collect hard data say! I hate it and everybody I don’t know does! I will just assume that shipments include massive returns! I have seen MBPs in the refurbished store, MUST be a flop! Some people really hate it so I assume that nobody can actually like it!

This thread is just a perfect example of how people will just make the wildest leaps of reasoning just to preserve their opinion when confronted with conflicting data.

Yeah, the MBP has some issues (but how many have zero issues and just don’t open their mouth about it?). Yeah, some people hate it (does not mean a lot of people might really like it).
Sure, a different model might have sold even more (how much more though? 15.4% increase is pretty massive).

Still. How hard is it to admit that clearly, your tastes and preferences might not line up with the overall market? The new MBP is a success, whether you like it or not.

YOU are just trying to justify a product that was the worst product received in Apple history.
Facts:
1- Apple never showed a detailed numbers per product of how many Macbooks were sold.
2- The shipments actually declined 15.8%. How is that a success??
3- How do you know that most of the Macbooks sold were not from older models? I know many users including me that were waiting for the new Macbook Pro to come out to buy one. As soon as they announced it, I bought the older model. And like me, I know several other users.
4- A product speaks for itself. Specially a bad one like the latest Macbooks Pro.
- You can not connect your own iPhone, iPad.
- Battery issues
- Lack of connectivity
- Limited to 16 Ram.
- Remove the Mag Safe (they have to be really dum-b to remove the best feature the Apple Macbooks Had).

This article tries to help Apple. But not even Phill Schiller with his desperate-lame adaptor discount could help the bad design of the latest Macbook Pro.

Rating: 8 Votes