What you need to know
- An IDC report says Apple saw Mac shipments increase 10% for the second quarter of 2021.
- There are already signs that things might be slowing down.
Apple sold 6.16 million Macs during the second quarter of 2021, an increase of almost 10% on the same quarter of 2020 according to a new report.
With Apple set to announce its quarterly earnings on July 27, IDC has shared its own numbers and believes that the whole PC industry shipped almost 84 million units for the quarter as people continued to buy machines for remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apple is thought to have a 7.4% share of the PC industry as a whole based on the Q2 2021 numbers.
It isn't all good news, though. IDC also states that there are already signs that things are beginning to go the other way — with demand for PCs beginning to slow as more parts of the world come out of various stages of pandemic-related lockdowns.
Though annual growth remains quite high, it has begun to taper off as the 13% growth rate in 2Q21 is far lower than the 55.9% growth in 1Q21 and 25.8% growth in 4Q20. "The market faces mixed signals as far as demand is concerned," said Neha Mahajan, senior research analyst with IDC's Devices and Displays Group. "With businesses opening back up, demand potential in the commercial segment appears promising. However, there are also early indicators of consumer demand slowing down as people shift spending priorities after nearly a year of aggressive PC buying."
It's worth noting that the increase in Mac and PC sales came at a time where various manufacturers were also said to be struggling to get hold of the components needed to build them, too.
Apple recently released its M1 iMac which will have helped give sales a bump, while more Macs are expected to arrive before the end of the year, too.
