Overall, Mac sales outgrew the PC market for 26 consecutive quarters until December, but sales are expected to rebound in the current quarter.
The Mac’s sudden collapse in the December quarter was described as “astonishing” by analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham & Co. on Friday. He noted that Mac shipments fell below PC shipment growth in all geographic regions and segments in the quarter.
“There was absolutely not one iota of positive news in the Mac shipment numbers,” Wolf said.
Blame for the poor performance of the Mac in the quarter can most likely be laid at the feet of the new iMac. A lack of availability of the new, slimmer models caused shipments to fall by 22.1% year-over-year. The new model went on sale in the month of December, but supply was severely contrained, and Apple is just now beginning to catch up with demand.
The situation is showing signs of improving however, as The NPD Group reported this week that domestic Mac sales were up 31% year-over-year in the month of January. With indicators like this, Wolf says Apple could be in a position to once more surpass the overall PC market again in the current quarter.
