What you need to know
- Mac shipments reportedly grew by 14% in the third quarter of 2021.
- This enabled Apple to grow its market share from 8.5% to 9.3% year over year.
- The performance comes ahead of a rumored MacBook Pro event.
Apple continues to see growth in the Mac as its rumored MacBook Pro event looms.
According to new data from analytics firm Canalys, the Mac saw over 14% growth in the third quarter of 2021 and increased its market share from 8.5% to 9.3% year over year.
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.
Ishan Dutt, the Senior Analyst at Canalys, said that the manufacturers who diversify their production and distribution channels will shield themselves most from supply chain and logistics issues. Apple has been one of the brands that has been more resilient to the ongoing chip shortage that has impacted production across a range of industries.
"Disruption to the global supply chain and logistics network remains the key inhibitor of higher growth in the PC market. More than a year on from the onset of the pandemic, manufacturing continues to be hindered by lockdowns and other COVID-19 related restrictions, particularly in Asia. This has been compounded by a massive slowdown in global transportation with freight prices and delay times skyrocketing as a number of industries compete to meet unfulfilled demand. The shortfall in supply of PCs is expected to last well into 2022, with the holiday season of this year set to see a significant portion of orders not met. Vendors able to manage this period of operational upheaval by diversifying production and distribution and having better visibility of orders to prioritize device allocation will be equipped to ride out the storm."
Apple is rumored to announce an October event that would see the introduction of a redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1X processor, mini-LED display, and the re-introduction of a number of ports like HDMI, SD Card slot, and more.
Bottom line: If you have the money to spring for the higher-end model, the iMac (2021) will likely surprise you. It's got enough power to accomplish all the basic tasks you could ask of a family computer and some leftover if you want to do a little more. Wrap that all up in a beautiful colored package and the iMac is one hell of a machine.
