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US Mac sales down as PC decline stablizes, but wildly-differing estimates by Gartner and IDC

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US Mac sales fell year-on-year as part of the global decline in the PC market as consumers switch to tablets, phablets and smartphones – but the two major market analysts produced wildly differing estimates of the size of that fall.

IDC has a dramatic drop of 11.2 percent, from 2.14M in the third quarter of 2012 to 1.9M in the same quarter this year, while Gartner shows a much more modest decline of 2.3 percent from 2.2M (close to IDC’s number) to 2.1M. The only point on which both agree is this is the first Q3 decline in Mac sales since 2002, a quarter usually assisted by the back-to-school market …

The credibility of the numbers doesn’t improve when you look at overall US sales across manufacturers: down 0.2 percent according to IDC, while Gartner has them up 3.5 percent.

Gartner

Gartner

IDC

IDC

The two are at least in broad agreement on the worldwide numbers, with the global PC market declining either 7.6 (IDC) or 8.6 (Gartner) percent. But something somewhere is screwy in the US estimates …

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Comments

  1. drtyrell969 - 10 years ago

    Let’s see, the economy is in the hole, and prices haven’t changed to reflect this reality. Other devices are cheaper, and capable of replacing most mundane tasks. Seems like normal metrics.

  2. Jan-Willem Arnold - 10 years ago

    Apple hasn’t been doing great things lately and Windows isn’t bad anymore. Thunderbolt is not a success. Late adoption of USB 3. Customer support is plain arrogant. You cannot open an iMac to exchange ram or hdd, without trouble. RAM pricing is still ridiculous. Power supplies have poor cable and connector design. Keyboards are poor quality – cannot stand one drop of coffee and feel worn out after just two years. They jut discontinued the Mac Pro in the EU zone for a while leaving pro customers with no alternative. The coming Mac Pro will be a candidate for the MOMA, next to the Cube and other rare products. Beautiful but not very useful expensive product. No proper server solution, so just offering part of the pie. Lack of dedicated commitment to the pro video market. Network protocols either poorly implemented (SMB) or hopelessly outdated (AFP). It is all piling up….

  3. Eric S. (@InspiredCode) - 10 years ago

    I’ll buy a new MacBook Pro when they are released. These stats only make sense if the release schedule is the same every year. I’m sure there will be iOS devices eroding some market share from OS X, but they haven’t even completed the refresh cycle yet. Lets wait until there is a comparison that makes sense.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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