Apple is facing a decline in Mac sales amid a PC market slowdown, but its lack of updates might also have something to do with the downslide.
Worldwide PC shipments have been declining for a good while and Apple is affected as well, experiencing a drop in Mac shipments globally.
As Gartner reports, Apple shipped roughly 5 million Macs during the third quarter of this year, marking a notable drop from the 5.7 million Macs it shipped during the same quarter last year. Comparing Q3 2016 with Q3 2015 shows a 13.4 percent drop in growth.
When it comes to market share, Apple grabbed 6.7 percent during the third quarter of 2016, down from the 7.3 percent it seized during the same quarter last year. The company rounds up the top five PC vendors, trailing Lenovo, HP, Dell and Asus. Lenovo experienced a slight drop in shipments, amounting to a 2.4 percent decline in growth, but HP, Dell and Asus grew by more than 2 percent.
In terms of PC shipments, Apple is notably behind others with its 5 million Macs shipped. Lenovo shipped roughly 14.4 million PCs in Q3 2016, HP shipped 14 million PCs, Dell shipped 10 million, while Asus shipped 5.4 million. Acer trails Apple and secured the sixth spot during the quarter, shipping 4.6 million PCs.
It's worth pointing out here, however, that Macs can be substantially more expensive than PCs from Lenovo, HP, Dell and Asus, which offer more options at various price points.
Apple shipped roughly 2 million Macs in the United States during the quarter, marking a steep 10.7 percent drop from the 2.3 million shipped during the same quarter last year.
Gartner notes an overall decline of 5.7 percent in overall PC shipments worldwide, dropping to 68.9 million units. International Data Corporation (IDC), meanwhile, estimates a 3.9 percent decline in overall PC shipments globally. The PC industry has been facing a steady decline for eight consecutive quarters.
IDC's estimates are similar to Gartner's, pegging Apple's Mac shipments during the third quarter of 2016 at roughly 5 million.
Apple may be able to turn things around with an updated Mac line, which is long overdue. The Retina MacBook was the only model to get an update this year, but all other are still waiting for a refresh.
A top-end MacBook Pro is expected to debut in late October, rocking an OLED touch bar, Touch ID and other neat features. A new MacBook Air should also hit the scene alongside the Pro model, boasting notable improvements over its predecessor.
If the lack of updates had something to do with Apple's decline on Mac sales, the upcoming models could improve Apple's performance despite a sluggish PC market overall.
