Jaromir Miko While in recent years Apple was the only computer manufacturer with growing sales despite a global decline in interest in these devices, the situation has now reversed, at least according to the prestigious Gartner agency.
It has released sales estimates for the final quarter of 2019 and says the company sold 3% fewer PCs than a year earlier. It means a drop from 5,4 million to just under 5,3 million Macs and MacBooks sold. The company still retained fourth place, surpassed only by Dell, HP and Lenovo.
Dell saw growth of 12,1% last year and sold 12,1 million computers, up from 10,8 million previously. In addition to the Dell brand itself, this also includes its Alienware division, which specializes in gaming computers. HP sold 5,4% more PCs, up from 15,3 to 16,1 million, and Lenovo topped the list by 6,6%, up from 17,5 to 16,4 million devices. Acer also improved, recording a 3,5% increase in sales from less than 3,9 to 4 million units. However, even this growth was not enough for Acer to overtake Asus.
The latter, like Apple, suffered by 2019% in the last quarter of 0,9, sales of its devices fell by 38 devices and thus sold less than 000 million computers. Other manufacturers saw a more significant decline, totaling 4,1% and their total sales falling from 11,8 to 13,1 million.
Windows PC sales saw their first ever growth since 2011. The main factor was apparently the end of support for Windows 7, which forced many users to upgrade to Windows 10. It was released on July 29/2015 and was initially free to anyone who had a compatible computer and an activated Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 system. The free upgrade option officially ended in 2016, but the company allowed disabled users to upgrade until the end of 2017.
Gartner also reports that Apple saw a 0,9% year-over-year drop in sales, falling from 18,5 million to 18,3 million. The ranking of other manufacturers was maintained in the Top 3, Lenovo retained its lead with 8,1% growth, or from 58,3 to almost 63 million. HP saw a 3% increase from 56,2 to 57,9 million, and Dell also grew from 41,8 to nearly 44 million, or 5,2%.
Even though sales increased last quarter, Gartner expects the downward trend of previous years to continue in the future. But he adds that new categories such as flexible PCs could cause reversals.
IDC also released its estimates, which also say Mac sales fell 5,3% year-over-year, from nearly 5 million to 4,7. Overall, the company was expected to see a 2019% year-over-year decline in 2,2, from 18,1 million to 17,7, according to IDC.
Starting in 2019, Apple stopped sharing official sales figures for its devices and focuses only on sales and net profit.
