The Canalys research group says Mac sales dipped 29.1% year-over-year in quarter three

Yesterday saw three reports released from three different research groups that offered differing reports on Mac sales for the third quarter (Q3) of 2023. So, heck, we might as well look at a fourth. 

According to the latest data from Canalys, the worldwide PC market posted another sequential improvement in the this quarter of 2023 (Q323). While total shipments of personal computers (PCs) amounting to 65.6 million units were down 7% year-on-year, they rose 8% compared to quarter two of 2023.

This represents the smallest annual shipment decline for the industry in over a year and is a further sign of recovery in both inventory levels and underlying demand. Shipments of notebooks dropped 6% annually to 52.1 million units, while desktop shipments were down 8% to 13.5 million units, according to Canalys.

Fourth-placed Apple posted the largest year-on-year drop in shipments, down 29% to 6.4 million units. However, this was largely driven by the comparison to a strong quarter last year, when it was able to fulfill pent-up demand following supply chain disruptions, according to Canalys.

This research group says Apple saw its personal computer sales drop 29.1% year-over-year from 3Q22 to 3Q23. Still, Apple remains in fourth place among global PC vendors with 9.8% market share and sales of 9 million Macs in 3Q23. That compares to 12.9% market share and sales of 11.7 million in the year-ago quarter. 

Ahead of Apple in global PC market share are: Lenovo (24.5% market share); HP (20.6% market share); and Dell (15.6% market share), per Gartner. Also note that neither Gartner nor IDC count tablets such as the iPad as a personal computer. If it did, Apple’s market share would be much higher.