What you need to know
- Mac and iPad helped Apple reach second place in the U.S. PC market.
- iPad sales grew 24% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2021.
In a new report from Canalys, Apple continues to see high performance across its Mac and iPad business in the United States.
While HP still took the crown, Apple came in second in the US PC market, despite negative growth with its Mac business. The iPad, however, grew 24% year-over-year.
For the second quarter in a row, HP led the US PC market, with over 8 million devices shipped. HP continued to dominate the Chromebook market too, with a 42% market share in the US. Apple remained second in the US PC market despite a 3% decline. It was the only major PC vendor to post negative growth. This can be attributed to iPad demand tailing off. Apple had more success with notebooks, with 24% year-on-year shipment growth, partly due to the success of the M1 chip.
According to the report, Apple has fared better than other manufacturers when it comes to the global chip shortage. However, other brands like Amazon and Samsung have slowly been creeping up.
The tablet market has showed signs of slowing in 2021, posting a 1% decline this quarter from its spike earlier in the pandemic, in Q2 2020. The tablet market ballooned in 2020 as consumers were stuck at home, with families looking for extra screens for entertainment and communication. That surge has faded slightly and lacks the future refresh cycle strength that notebooks will see from purchases made early in the pandemic. iPads performed well in Q2 2020 as Apple kept up with component shortages better than its key competitors. Since then, other vendors have made up ground, leading to Apple shrinking while Amazon and Samsung have grown.
Brian Lynch, Research Analyst at Canalys, says that pandemic-related uses cases, like working and learning from home, are likely to continue "well into the future." This, according to the analyst, represents a huge opportunity for the PC and tablet market in the coming months and years.
"It is clear now that pandemic-related use cases will extend well into the future. This points toward a significant refresh opportunity in the future – fantastic news for PC vendors and their channel and ecosystem partners. The commercial and education segments have exploded, triggering tremendous refresh potential. The US economy has bounced back well from its pandemic woes and small businesses are recovering, which will lead to a wave of purchasing from the segment."
Apple is expected to release a new iPad and iPad mini this fall along with new MacBook Pro models.
