Western European Mac shipments fell 22.8% in the final quarter of 2022, shows the market intelligence data from Canalys. The news comes on the heels of yesterday’s report that Apple halted production of the M2 chip in January and February.
However, while the news for the Mac was less than great, top-selling PC brands fared worse than that.
During Apple’s earnings call for the holiday quarter, it was revealed that Mac revenue fell from $10.85 billion in the final quarter of 2021, to $7.74 billion in the same quarter last year.
During the call, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented that it was a “difficult” situation, as thanks to high M1 sales in 2021, there was lower demand for M2 models.
Apple may have overestimated demand for the M2 Macs, as the Cupertino firm in January totally suspended production of its custom M2 series processors, used to power new MacBook Pro and Mac mini models, as well as the latest MacBook Air. This marks the first time the Cupertino company has ever suspended production of a current-gen chip.
While Canalys data shows that Mac shipments in the holiday quarter fell to 1.4 million, down from 1.8 million in the same quarter in 2021, that same data reveals that the PC market as a whole fared much worse than the Mac, slumping by a massive 38.5%.
| Vendor | Q4 2022 shipments | Q4 2022 market share | Q4 2021 shipments | Q4 2021 market share | Annual growth |
| Lenovo | 2.9 | 26.9% | 4.4 | 25.4% | -34.9% |
| HP | 2.5 | 23.8% | 4.4 | 25.6% | -42.8% |
| Dell | 1.6 | 14.6% | 2.7 | 15.6% | -42.4% |
| Apple | 1.4 | 13.2% | 1.8 | 10.5% | -22.8% |
| Asus | 0.9 | 8.1% | 1.2 | 6.6% | -24.9% |
| Others | 1.4 | 13.4% | 2.8 | 16.2% | -49.2% |
| Total | 10.7 | 100.0% | 17.4 | 100.0% | -38.5% |
The market data firm says there are three reasons for the fall in demand.
First, there was a huge increase in demand for computers during the pandemic, resulting in eight consecutive quarters of higher-than-average shipments. This led to market saturation, as consumers and businesses will not need to replace those computers for several years.
Second, the current economic climate is hitting the PC industry quite hard, resulting in high inflation and layoffs.
Last but not least, interest rate increases have made leasing PCs more expensive for businesses, while companies are engaging in general cost-cutting in a worsening economy.
The iPad fared a bit better than the Mac in Q4, as Apple’s launch of the 10th generation iPad in Q4 helped it stay flat year-over-year in the quarter. For the full year 2022, iPad shipments declined 16%, in line with the wider market.
Canalys expects the Western European PC market to continue to underperform throughout this year, falling around 7% rather than the 21% seen across 2022. It forecasts a return to growth in 2024.
(Via 9to5Mac)