Apple's Share of Notebook Market Took a Hit Last Quarter Due to Lack of New MacBook and MacBook Pro

Apple recently reported sales of 3.72 million Macs in the third quarter, its fewest in any quarter since 2010. It was also the first time Apple sold fewer than four million Macs in any quarter since 2013.

For that reason, it should come as no surprise that Apple's share of the worldwide notebook market took a hit last quarter.

Taiwanese research firm TrendForce estimates that Apple accounted for 6.5 percent of notebook shipments worldwide in the third quarter, a considerable decline over its estimated 10 percent market share in the year-ago quarter.

The decline resulted in Apple dropping below Acer and ranking sixth among notebook vendors, in terms of global shipments, in the third quarter. The top five spots were held by HP at 26.2 percent, Lenovo at 20 percent, Dell at 19.6 percent, Acer at 8 percent, and ASUS at 7.4 percent, according to TrendForce.

It's important to note that Apple doesn't break down its Mac sales on a model-by-model basis in its earnings reports, so TrendForce's data is estimated, likely based in part on the average selling price of a Mac.

There's a pretty simple explanation for the decline in sales last quarter: nearly every product in the Mac lineup was outdated.

Both the 12-inch MacBook and iMac lines haven't been refreshed since June 2017, while the MacBook Air hasn't received any substantial updates since 2015. Likewise, the latest Mac mini is from October 2014, and the Mac Pro hasn't been updated since December 2013, but an all-new version is coming in 2019.

It certainly didn't help that Apple refreshed the MacBook Pro in mid July, nearly two weeks after the quarter ended. Apple's financial chief Luca Maestri highlighted this "difficult launch comparison" in the company's earnings call:

Our year-over-year sales performance was impacted by the different timing of the MacBook Pro launch…

Mac sales should rebound in the near future, however, as TrendForce expects Apple to release a new MacBook Air at the end of the third quarter, while respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects the 12-inch MacBook, iMac, and Mac mini lines to be updated later this year—likely by the end of October.

Tag: TrendForce

Top Rated Comments

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dannyyankou

11 months ago

And due to the fact that they’re selling a 1 port laptop for $1300

Rating: 19 Votes

macduke

11 months ago

Unfortunately they'll likely use this as an excuse for cutting back on Mac updates even more and consolidating the lines down to only a few options. It's a self-perpetuating train wreck. The Mac is how people get work done. You can't tell me that all those designers and engineers in Apple are using iPad Pros to build these rumored 8K VR headsets, Apple Cars, the new iPhone lineup, or finish dev on iOS 12. I'm hopeful since they hired all those creatives to help them design better professional Mac hardware, but at the same time I feel like we haven't seen many fruits of that labor yet so I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

Rating: 13 Votes

MvdM

11 months ago

So removing the ports and giving them a bad keyboard didn't help selling those devices?
That's weird, Apple made them so thin, that's the most important thing, right?

Rating: 11 Votes

CmdrLaForge

11 months ago

An affordable MacBook in 13” and 15”. If someone likes a 15” laptop for writing and not 4K editing he (=me) still needs to spend close to $3000. I would like to see a MacBook in 15” for no more than 1500$ entry model.

Rating: 10 Votes

now i see it

11 months ago

The Mac Mini is almost certainly coming...

Rating: 8 Votes

sinoka56

11 months ago

Apple could release the 2015 Pros with updated CPU, ports and people would be happy.

Rating: 7 Votes

JitteryJimmy

11 months ago

And yet many people in this forum have been pining for the "good old days" when Steve came back and consolidated the entire Mac family into four products. :D

That's because Job's vision of four products also specified them to be champions within their market. Even "Windows" users were buying Macs just to run Windows. Even the plastic MacBook had a strong CPU and substantial storage compared to its "Pro" counterpart. These days, every Mac product comes with its own list of well known limitations and compromises. And the non-Pro models are particularly weak in terms of price/performance ratio.

Rating: 5 Votes

PhilaPHL

11 months ago

‘It’s the keyboard stupid’
Price may be a minor issue but it’s ok to be expensive if it’s a damn tank of a machine.

A Laptop needs 2 things: a great screen and a great keyboard/touchpad, the rest is style.
They failed at the keyboard, made personnel changes and have a chance to fix it next release.
We use the laptops for many different reasons but the vast majority of us need a screen and a keyboard.
Failing that and it’s back to the bloated software company for me.
I am a fan, but not a captive.

Rating: 5 Votes

Sedulous

11 months ago

The state of apple’s computer offerings is dire. I no longer advise people to buy new Macs. The price/hardware design are major downsides... and personally will not buy a computer that lacks removable storage (or even a lifeboat connector). It is quite frankly not very “Pro” that Apple has intentionally eliminated any future-proofing with the soldered-everything in a too-thin enclosure that will likely die an early heat-death.

That doesn’t help sales either.

Rating: 5 Votes