Apple will officially release last quarter’s earnings results at the end of this month but analytics firm Canalys is out today with data on PC shipments for Q3. While the entire market saw shipment growth, Apple’s Mac lineup also saw a YoY gain, keeping its market share steady just under 8% of worldwide shipments.
The 2019 Q3 estimates from Canalys (Apple’s fiscal Q4) show overall PC shipments growing 4.7% year over year. That’s the best overall shipment result for the global PC market since 2012. Coming in first for market share was Lenovo with 24% of global PC shipments and over 7% YoY growth. HP followed Lenovo with 23% of the market and saw an even higher 8.5% growth in the quarter.
Apple landed in fourth for market share, capturing 7.6% of the worldwide shipments with its 1.5% YoY growth. Canalys notes the back to school season as helping Apple hit the improved sales. And Macs saw double the growth in the US that it did with overall sales.
PC shipments in the United States in Q3 benefitted from tail-end back-to-school season demand and front loading of shipments into the channel ahead of expected disruption from tariffs in the crucial holiday spending period from November to January. Shipments were up 3.0% year-on-year, with Apple and HP growing faster than the market average. HP continued to see a healthy sell-in of Chromebooks, with shipments over the million mark.
As for Europe, PC growth was more muted and Apple was the only top-five company to not see growth.
In Europe, uncertainty over Brexit and its outcome restrained demand for PCs, as businesses are apprehensive about investments for the long-term. Shipments grew about 2% in EMEA, below the global average. Apple was the only vendor in the top five to not see shipment growth in the region.
The biggest factor for PC growth was the end of support for Windows 7 and specifically the market of Japan as it prepares for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Japan continued to be a stand-out growth market, with businesses complying with deadlines for the end of Windows 7 extended support, and more importantly, a ramping up of IT infrastructure spend ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, driving up demand for PCs.
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