The Mac sees sales dip 15.6% year-over-year as global PC market declines

Worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments totaled 68 million units in the third quarter of 2022, a 19.5% decrease from the third quarter of 2021, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. And Apple’s Mac wasn’t exempt.

This is the steepest market decline since Gartner began tracking the PC market in the mid-1990s and the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline. (Note that Gartner doesn’t included tablets such as the iPad in its tally of personal computers.)

“This quarter’s results could mark a historic slowdown for the PC market,” said Mikako Kitagawa, director Analyst at Gartner. “While supply chain disruptions have finally eased, high inventory has now become a major issue given weak PC demand in both the consumer and business markets. Back to school sales ended with disappointing results despite massive promotions and price drops, due to a lack of need as many consumers had purchased new PCs in the last two years. On the business side, geopolitical and economic uncertainties led to more selective IT spending, and PCs were not at the top of the priority list.”

Global PC market share

Apple sold approximately 5.8 million Macs in the third quarter of 2022. That compares to 8.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple now has 8.5% of the global PC market. Despite the dip in Mac sales, Apple’s overall share of the global PC market is up from 8.1% in the year-ago quarter.

Ahead of Apple in quarter three of 2022 are Lenovo (17.1% market share with sales dipping 15.3%); HP (12.8% market share with sales dipping 27.9%), and Dell (12% market share with sales down 21.1%).

US PC market share

The U.S. PC market declined 17.3% in the third quarter of 2022, the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment decline, according to Gartner. Slowed laptop sales drove the overall U.S. market down, but the desktop market showed modest growth driven by pent-up demand among businesses as well as public sector purchases, adds the research group.

Mac sales in the US were down 5.8% from the third quarter of 2021. Apple sold 2.8 million Macs in quarter three of 2022 compared to 3 million in the third quarter of 2021.

Apple now has 16% of the US PC market; that’s up from 14.1% in the year-ago quarter. Ahead of Apple in the US are Dell (4.7 million computers sold in quarter three of 2022 with sales down 16.6%) and HP (4 million computers sold with sales down 23.3%).