Mac sales dip in quarter four of 2019; Apple still places fourth among global personal computer makers

Global Mac sales dipped either 3% or 5.3% in the fourth quarter of 2019, depending on if you believe in new data from Gartner or IDC.

Worldwide personal computer shipments totaled 70.6 million units in the fourth quarter of 2019, a 2.3% increase from the fourth quarter of 2018, according to preliminary results by Gartner. For the year, 2019 computer shipments surpassed 261 million units, showing 0.6% growth from 2018.

According to Gartner, Apple sold approximately 5.3 million Macs in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to 5.4 million in the year-ago quarter. This dropped Apple’s global market share from 7.9% to 7.5% year-over-year.

That’s still enough to give the Mac fourth place among worldwide computer makers. Ahead of Apple are: Lenovo (24.8% market share in quarter four of 2019), HP (22.8%), and Dell (17.2%).

Worldwide personal computer shipments totaled just under 71.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2019, a 4.8% increase from the fourth quarter of 2018, according to preliminary results by IDC. 

According to IDC, Apple sold approximately 4.7 million Macs in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to 5 million in the year-ago quarter. This dropped Apple’s global market share from 7.3% to 6.6% year-over-year.

Again, that’s still enough to give the Mac fourth place among worldwide computer makers. Ahead of Apple are: Lenovo (24.8% market share in quarter four of 2019), HP (23.9%), and Dell (17.4%).

Neither Gartner nor Apple count iPad as personal computers. If they did, Apple would top all global computer marketshare lists.