Apple’s Macs have been building momentum, and that’s finally started to translate into sales, IDC Research Director Linn Huang told Computerworld.
Apple recorded revenue of $25.8 billion from Mac sales in its fiscal 2017, which ended Sept. 30. Mac unit sales of nearly 5.4 million bested both industry and financial analysts’ expectations. Before Apple released its data, research firm IDC had pegged Apple’s number at 4.9 million, while rival Gartner offered an even lower estimate: 4.6 million. And according to Philip Elmer-DeWitt, who regularly polls Wall Street for quarterly forecasts, every analyst from a group of more than two dozen undershot Mac sales, some by over half a million machines.
Unit sales were up 10.2% over the same quarter in 2016, and the Mac’s average selling price jumped to $1,331. That’s a year-over-year rise of $156 (13.3%). According to IDC, the 5.4 million Macs represented almost exactly 8% of the 67.2 million personal computers shipped worldwide in the September quarter.
Huang told Computerworld that, as Apple CEO Tim Cook has noted, that sales were juiced by June’s laptop and a strong back-to-school season. And enterprise sales account for a great share of Macs, he added.
