Computerworld:
The latest PC marketshare figures from Gartner and IDC suggest Mac users are anxious for new MacBooks, as Mac sales fall and economic weakness impacts PC sales everywhere.
“Apple continues to face an increasingly competitive market as it awaits a refresh of its PC lineup. As a result, shipments experienced a decline from last year,” said IDC.
IDC says Q2 2016 worldwide PC shipments fell 4.5%, totaling 62.4 million units, with Apple and Lenove particularly impacted. Apple fell from a 7.4 percent share in Q2 2015 to a 7.1 percent share in Q2 2016, with an 8.3 percent drop in year-on-year shipments, they said.
Gartner says Q2 2016 worldwide PC shipments fell 5.2%, totaling 64.3 million units. The analyst say Apple’s market share held, year-on-year, at 7.1 percent, though its year-on-year shipments fell 4.9 percent.
Demand continues to build. I do wonder what drives Apple’s thinking here. Is the issue simply that the new MacBook Pro is not ready for prime time? Are there related supply chain or other product issues (like macOS Sierra) that are driving the timing?
I do feel certain of two things: Apple knows what they are doing here, and when they do release a new MacBook Pro, they will sell a lot of them, enough to significantly change the above numbers.
Cook is a consummate taskmaster when it comes to supply chain. Since heading Apple, he’s been forcing an annual release schedule that is juxtaposed to how Jobs ran the company. However, why hasn’t the Pro series continued this pace probably has a lot to do with components developing at a different rate. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple shifting development of the Pro series to be more like the iPhone, iPad and newer MacBook, utilizing their A chip or a new, more powerful chip, spec’d for the Pro market.
As an Apple fan and an owner of a new iMac, I would love to see a move to better desktop performance even if it means sacrificing some aesthetics.
Apple is grossly neglecting the pro market. Selling a 3 year old MacPro that was already utilizing year old technology when released at a premium price point is simply not catering to the pro user. I know of a lot of people who are buying old 2012 MacPro hardware and upgrading it with newer components because the new one does not support CUDA and it’s not really expandable as far as GPU. I hope Apple changes this releasing new hardware that the user can swap the GPU of there choice.
Historically, Apple has released refreshes of their laptop lines ahead of new school seasons. The year isn’t over yet – these market share numbers will change.
Apple should start to make computers, again – some day.
Make a Mac Book that people can upgrade.
— iirc the old, old, old model is still selling well because users can pro long its life with “upgrades” or sell it to someone who can do these things.
Make a Pro Mac that people can upgrade…
— the old Mac Pro design is awesome – expandible and those machines can still run very well today – 6+ years later and have (mostly) modern hardware.
Make a Mac Mini Pro that is modular
— and maybe like a “Quad stack” mini where one could add PCIe 3x cards (two slots) and run i5 or i7 CPUs, 4 RAM slots, etc… like a Mac Cube (which IIRC only had one AGP slot).
Support the Pro and Prosumer users?
Put Steve Wozniak to work (if he wants)!
Fire everyone responsible for Apple “Music”.
Yes – well the 2012 Mac Pro is really a 2010 Mac Pro – I’m not even sure there is a firmware difference… (like the ’09 vs ’10).
Don’t put Woz to work please. He is clearly behind the times.