Apple's Mac shipments are estimated to have been down over 20 percent in the first quarter of 2020, according to new data shared by Canalys this week. The shuttering of businesses and factories around the world has caused "severe delay in production and logistical issues", leading to a worldwide PC shipment fall of eight percent year on year.
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Top vendor rankings remained stable, with Lenovo continuing to lead the PC market with 12.8 million units shipped. HP came second with 11.7 million units, followed by Dell with 10.5 million units.
Apple shipped an estimated four million Macs in the first quarter of 2019, dropping to 3.2 million in the first quarter of 2020, a decline of 21 percent. This is a greater year-over-year decline than seen by any of the other top five vendors, including Lenovo, HP, Dell, and Acer.
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In spite of falling shipments, demand has soared in the first quarter of 2020, driven by remote working and learning requirements from strict lockdown measures across the world. Canalys predicts that vendors will report healthy profits over the coming weeks, with operating margin percentages reaching all-time highs.
Canalys also notes that "many other home technologies" have seen major growth amid the shift to working and learning from home. This includes headphones, webcams, printers, and monitors, as well as home-working software solutions for collaboration, virtual desktops, remote access, and security. Apple, however, does not produce products for many of these categories.
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According to Canalys analyst Ishan Dutt, PC industry demand is unlikely to remain as strong as it was in the first quarter.
As we move into Q2, the production constraints in China have eased. But the spike in PC demand seen in Q1 is not likely to be sustained and the rest of the year looks less positive. Few businesses will be spending on technology for their offices, while many homes will have been freshly equipped. A global recession has begun – businesses will go bankrupt, with millions newly unemployed. Even governments and large corporations will have to prioritize spending elsewhere.
Canalys data is based on supply chain analysis and consumer surveys. Apple no longer discloses iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales, which means that analyst estimates cannot be confirmed by specific sales data.
Top Rated Comments
- Let old stuff like iMac's wither on the vine
- Overpriced
- Reduced benefits (buying a Mac as a student in the past would give 3 years of Apple care)
- Increased competition from the likes of Dell who've really done a great job with the XPS line
Not all of this stuff is Apple's fault, Intel has been a cluster of failure in recent years. But even ignoring dated designs like the iMac with its' giant bezels, they seem to release big updates which push things forward then spend years acting like the product doesn't exist.
Also a 720p FaceTime camera in 2020 on a MacBook Pro should have resulted in an executive getting fired.
It's not rocket science, update the devices with the latest silicon. Then when designs start getting dated like the iMac, do a refreshed design. Still no 802.11ax on the latest iMac when the iPhone and iPad have it.
Tim is an idiot for pricing these things so high, however - part of the reason I believe we keep seeing these "Mac sales are down" reports (and yes, I know, the current economic climate may have something to do with this... but it's by no means the primary or only cause).
The difference between Steve and Tim is that Steve actually respected the intelligence of the average Mac user (20 years ago the stereotype was college-educated & creative). We didn't always agree with him, but there was a mutual respect. Tim seems to imagine an entirely different demographic (teenagers, "old folks") and along with Ahrendts, tried (and mostly succeeded) in transforming Apple into some sort of boutique brand - higher prices for no particular reason. (Not to mention the older generation today include some of the very people who catalyzed the personal computer revolution in the 60s, 70s and 80s.)
In short, out of touch is the common parlance. :rolleyes: