Apple's Worldwide Mac Shipments Up in Q2 2020 Amid Overall PC Market Growth

Apple's worldwide Mac shipments were up 5.1 percent during the second quarter of 2020, according to new PC shipping estimates shared this afternoon by Gartner.

gartner 2Q20 global

Gartner's Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q20 (Thousands of Units)

Apple shipped an estimated 4.4 million Macs in Q2 2020, up from the 4.2 million shipped in Q2 2019, with shipments growing even amid the ongoing public health crisis.

Apple's market share during the quarter grew to 6.7 percent, up from 6.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. Apple's rising shipments came as the overall PC market saw growth of 2.8 percent.

Apple continues to maintain its position as the number four PC vendor in the world, trailing behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell. Lenovo was the top PC vendor during the quarter with 16.197 million PCs shipped and 25 percent market share, followed by HP with 16.165 million PCs shipped and 24.9 percent market share.

gartner 2Q20 trend

Apple's Market Share Trend: 1Q06-2Q20 (Gartner)

Dell was the number three vendor 10.65 million PCs shipped and 16.4 percent market share, but Dell was the only one of the major vendors to see a drop in shipments. Acer shipped 4 million PCs and ASUS shipped 3.6 million PCs, with both vendors trailing Apple.

Apple also saw Mac shipment growth in the United States, shipping 2 million Macs in Q2 2020, up from 1.9 million in Q2 2019 for 4.3 percent growth. Apple also continues to be the number four vendor in the United States, coming in after HP, Dell, and Lenovo. Overall U.S. PC shipments were also up 4.6 percent year over year.

gartner 2Q20 us

Gartner's Preliminary U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q20(Thousands of Units)

According to Gartner, PC shipment growth during the quarter was driven by purchases necessary for working from home and online education. The upward tick in shipments is not expected to continue.

"Additionally, mobile PC growth was particularly strong, driven by several factors including business continuity for remote working, online education and consumers' entertainment needs. However, this uptick in mobile PC demand will not continue beyond 2020, as shipments were mainly boosted by short-term business needs due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic."

IDC also released its own PC shipment estimates this afternoon, and its estimations are wildly different. IDC's data suggests Apple shipped 5.6 million Macs during Q2 2020, up 36 percent from the 4.1 million estimated to have shipped in Q2 2019.

IDC believes that the overall worldwide PC market saw 11.2 percent growth with 72.3 million total PCs shipped, while Gartner believes there were 64.8 million total PCs shipped during the quarter.

It's important to note that data from Gartner and IDC is estimated and not reflective of Apple's actual sales, which accounts for the large discrepancy in estimated shipments.

In the past, we were able to check estimated shipment data when Apple provided quarterly earnings releases with actual Mac sales information, but Apple no longer breaks out unit sales for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, which makes it impossible to know precise sales numbers.

Tags: Gartner, IDC

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Top Rated Comments

PickUrPoison Avatar
64 months ago

I literally can't believe HPQ is still in business.
If they can survive Carly Fiorina they can survive Covid.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
konqerror Avatar
64 months ago

More interested in why Dell is down, what did they do?
COVID caused people without laptops to go to stores and buy them, whereas companies who were shut down cancelled and delayed corporate refreshes.

Dell doesn't have much of a retail presence, they're more focused on corporate, followed by direct online sales. People didn't want to wait 2-3 weeks to get things shipped.

Same thing happend to Lenovo in the US (whereas Lenovo has a bigger retail presence in China/Asia). People like ThinkPads, but my Best Buy shows exactly 1 low-end ThinkPad in their store.

In contrast, HP is the master of unloading cheap consumer junk. They're the primary brand of Wal-Mart, for example. Most of the computers in Costco seem to be HPs. That's why their sales surged.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
theorist9 Avatar
64 months ago
Wait, this can't be right. We know the Mac is dead, and that we're all going to be using iPads. We know this because people on the internet said so.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
XXPP Avatar
64 months ago

Who would of thought [that worked] keyboards would see an increase in sales [/s]
Nobody cares. Butterfly keyboards was excellent.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
The Clark Avatar
64 months ago

More interested in why Dell is down, what did they do?
Maybe now that Mac has better keyboards there's literally no reason to buy a Dell?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PickUrPoison Avatar
64 months ago

More interested in why Dell is down, what did they do?
Pissed off the analyst who made up these numbers?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)