apple pc canalys q3
9 months ago
Published October 12, 2021 by

Canalys: Apple’s PC sales grew 14.4% last quarter

From “Global PC market grows 5% in Q3 2021 as supply and logistics deteriorate” posted Monday:

Following five quarters of double digit growth, the global PC market saw annual growth drop to 5% in Q3 2021, with shipments of desktops and notebooks, including workstations settling at 84.1 million units. Despite the reduction in growth, volumes remain at a remarkably high level, given how strong the industry performed in Q3 2020. As a result, the PC market has undergone a two-year CAGR of 9% from Q3 2019. Despite high demand, PC business suffered a series of blows, making it extremely hard to facilitate supply. Vendors and channel partners are still having difficulty fulfilling orders as backlogs persist. Notebooks and mobile workstation shipments grew 3% year-on-year to hit 67.4 million units, while shipments of desktops and desktop workstations rose 12% to 16.6 million units…

Of the top five PC vendors, all but one continued to post shipment volume growth in Q3 2021. Lenovo led the market with 19.8 million units shipped, for a modest increase of 2.5% year-on-year. HP maintained second position, but underwent a 5.7% decline, with a drop off in Chromebook shipments to the US playing a major role in the downslide. Third-placed Dell was the big winner, posting the highest growth at 26.7% with over 15 million units shipped and a market share gain of over 3% from a year ago. Apple and Acer rounded out the top five with healthy growth of 14.4% and 5.7% respectively, with the former also enjoying a market share gain.

Cue the spreadsheet:

My take: Note that Canalys’ estimate of Apple’s September quarter sales growth (14.4%)  is considerably higher than IDC’s (9.9%). One reason may be that Canalys includes iPads in its PC count and IDC does not.

Correction: According to Horace Dediu, 7.8 million units cannot include iPads. iPads alone are at least 16 million units. Canalys does count iPad sales, but in a separate category, not as PCs.

8 Comments

  1. Horace Dediu said:
    7.8 million units cannot include iPads. iPads alone are at least 16 million units.

    8
    October 12, 2021
    • Gregg Thurman said:
      Since buying my M equipped 5G iPad Pro I rarely use my Mac mini.

      The iPad Pro is faster, and the 5G cellular is faster than my WiFi. The only thing I use my Mac mini for is updating my spreadsheets.

      THE iPAD IS A COMPUTER

      0
      October 12, 2021
      • Charles A. said:
        Time to upgrade to the M1 Mac Mini. It’s crazy fast. And the M1X Mini is just around the corner.

        0
        October 13, 2021
  2. Daniel Epstein said:
    I put the Canalys and IDC charts side by side on my computer and noticed a
    few things. The top 3 spots where very close in Units shipped. Apple’s results in the two charts where off by about 179K in amounts. Biggest difference seems to be in the counting of Others 3184K difference between the two charts. Canalys showing more. So it seems unlikely the percentages of market share would agree anyway.

    2
    October 12, 2021
  3. Jerry Doyle said:
    GPCS was declining for 8 years until the onset of the pandemic at which time we saw work transitioning from home beginning at the very end of 2019. Than throughout 2020 sales increased significantly as the pandemic took hold. WFH is continuing and I suspect more folk are finding that WFA along with education, conducting of seminars, workshops and business meetings all can be done on-line along with much entertainment continuing on-line. Thus, the need for increased sales in desktops and notebooks. This transitioning seems here to stay going forward if not continuing to increase as technology and enhancements grow in connections and speed. Apple’s healthy growth of 14.4% is impressive and most refreshing. And “tablets” are not addressed, which means Apple’s thriving iPad business is not included in this datum. HP continues to amaze me by its erosion and decline as a company that can’t seem to get traction. Dell continues to impress in sales and as a company.

    1
    October 12, 2021
  4. Thomas Williams said:
    Looking at PC shipments in isolation from all other hardware is like excluding the oceans from hydrological surveys. For billions of people, the vast majority of humanity actually, the device in their hand or on their wrist IS their PC. The device on their desk somewhere keeps getting dusty. Their earpieces are mostly connected to something very mobile, tablets or phones. FedEx, Uber, farmers, realtors & my plumber use mobile devices most of each day.
    Laptops, desktops, and servers have their place but that place is not where the masses are most of the time. Firms like HP, Lenovo & Dell, having no phones, fight for a dwindling market. Given the current WFH inventory drain, who ever can deliver 25 units to the the service techs homes by next Friday gets the order.

    2
    October 12, 2021

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