Personal Computer Market Suffers a Sales Decline, Mac Sees an Impressive Increase

Personal Computer Market Suffers a Sales Decline, Mac Sees an Impressive Increase
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There’s no denying that the personal computer market, as a whole, is on the decline. Every year tablets and 2-in-1 devices get better at performing tasks that used to only be possible with a desktop or laptop computer, and every year the humble computer becomes more obsolete.

Unless, of course, we’re talking about the Mac lineup. Analysis firm Gartner has recently released the results for its fifth consecutive quarter of tracking computer sales, noting that while the computer market, in general, fell by 8.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, and 8 percent in general during the entire year, the Mac bucked the trend, enjoying a 2.8 percent increase in sales in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter in 2014, and a 5.8 percent increase over the year.

image1According to the report, Apple shipped around 20.7 million Mac computers during 2015, with around 5.7 million of those computers being sold in the last quarter.

Meanwhile, other computer manufacturers did not enjoy the same results. Lenovo, which is the largest computer seller in the world, saw a 4.2 percent decrease in shipments in Q4 of 2015, with there being a decrease of 3.2 percent over the year in general. Of course, even Lenovo’s decline in sales wasn’t as bad as the computer market in general. HP, which is the second largest computer maker, saw a pretty rough year, experiencing an 8.1 decrease in shipments between the fourth quarter of 2015 and the fourth quarter of 2014. It saw a 4.4 percent decrease in sales over the year in general.

The likes of Dell, Acer, and Asus all also experienced declines in sales over last year.

So why is Apple able to more or less avoid the decrease in sales? Well, there are a number of factors that go into Apple sales. While the Windows computer market is experiencing a huge shift with the release of high-powered tablets and 2-in-1, many of which are aimed at being laptop replacements, Apple has largely avoided this. This is combined with the fact that Apple’s user base is a pretty loyal one, and those that have a Mac computer are very likely to buy a Mac for their next computer.

Of course, there is some question as to how much longer Apple is able to sustain Mac growth. With the release of the iPad Pro last year, Apple showed its first signs of creating products designed to replace computers. As devices like the iPad Pro continue to improve, however, they will continue to be able to do things that only computers were previously able to do, and Apple will likely see a decrease in its Mac computers as well.

image2There are, however, a few markets that will likely continue to use Mac computers for at least the next five years or so. These markets are generally the more creative ones, including graphic designers, video editors, and music producers and engineers. Because of how demanding these people’s tasks are on computers, tablets and 2-in-1s still have a long way to go before they can offer competitive replacements.

Not only that, but these markets are growing, largely because of how accessible the tools to do them are. While a music producer once had to own or at least rent out millions of dollars worth of gear in order to have a large music studio, these days users can simply buy music creation software Pro Tools and a small recording interface, and create music that sounds as good as professional recordings. Of course, the professional skills are still required, but the garage band no longer has to save up tons of money to enter the studio.

Because of this, the Mac will stick around for at least the next few years. Whether or not it suffers a hit from the rise of mobile devices, however, is another question.

Interestingly enough, the Windows market has a similar claim to a market – gaming. As long as gamers are buying demanding computers, Windows computers will stick around. It’s no secret that Apple has never been able to compete in the gaming market, however this has more to do with game developers not releasing their games to OS X more than it has to do with Apple not making computers that are able to handle gaming.

The personal computer market is set to have an interesting few years, and while Apple has delayed seeing a dip in sales, most suggest that it’s only a matter of time before devices like the iPad Pro take over for the Apple fan base.

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