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I didn't think PCs were part of the "pandemic surge" like Peleton was. If that was true then surely we should see a similar drop in MacBook sales. Do we have an

I didn't think PCs were part of the "pandemic surge" like Peleton was. If that was true then surely we should see a similar drop in MacBook sales. Do we have any figures on that?

secabeen 3y ago
Yes, sales down 40%, worse than the overall PC market decline of 28%: https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/04/17/apples-mac-had-a-tough-first-quarter-of-2023-in-a-bad-overall-pc-market https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/04/17/apples-mac-had-a-...
hn_throwaway_99 3y ago
All of the PC spike and drop data is in the article. The Mac slump is even worse: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/analysts-say-mac-sales-are-down-40-as-post-pandemic-pc-sales-slump-continues/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/analysts-say-mac-sal...
- ghaff 3y ago
  Macs also have the Apple Silicon effect. My M1 Pro replaced a 2015 MacBook as my primary laptop. Though, in fact, for a lot of things (though not generative art and a lot of multimedia in general), the 2015 system is still fine. Don't expect to need a new laptop soon.
  - jamiek88 3y ago
    Yeah I was thinking about this. I have a 2021 M1 Pro mac, an iPhone 14 pro and the M1 iPad. I have an oled LG TV and an Xbox series x. I won’t be looking to upgrade any of those for the foreseeable future. For the first time in my life I’m sated when it comes to tech. I’ve always had one eye on the next thing since I was 12 but right now all my devices have reached the point where they are so good I have no FOMO at all. I have no real interest in VR but will keep an open mind over apples head set. To be honest if Apple made a fucking toaster I’d probably be one of the losers lining up for it!
    - eludwig 3y ago
      To be fair, it would probably be a really nice toaster
    - ghaff 3y ago
      My wall-mounted TV is fairly old but dealing with a 65" plasma which would be difficult to dispose of even for money makes me lie down until the feeling goes away. Could use a new iPad but I used it a lot more when I was traveling more. Maybe again, especially if I do more traveling where I don't need a laptop. Could also replace my 8 year old iMac but works as a web browser and I can do everything on my laptop with external monitor--and there are pros and cons to doing stateful work. on 2 different machines.
      - mrguyorama 3y ago
        Why would it be difficult to dispose of? How did you get it home? You can rent a truck from home depot for pretty cheap and I don't think dumps would deny you the ability to throw away a TV
        ghaff 3y ago
        >How did you get it home? It was delivered. They most certainly would deny you in Massachusetts (not that my town has a dump; I have a dumpster) and none of the consumer recycling places like Best Buy will take TVs over about 35 inches or so. You'd have to trek around to find a commercial recycler and, at that point, I'm just going to stick it in the back of my garage until the end of time. In any case a more significant project than I need to take on right now. What I have is fine.
bsg75 3y ago
During the pandemic, some of my company's Lenovo laptop orders were backlogged by weeks (or months for a brief period). We had difficulty obtaining laptops for remote employees, even when lowering requirements to "Anything reasonably suitable". At the same time MacBook Pro's did not have significant changes in order times. I suspect this is because that for large corps, Macs are not as prevalent as Windows laptops. More "specialist" less "commodity". Personally, I have 10 year old Macs still usable. This message comes from a 2012 MacMini - laptop level hardware. Equivalent age Windows laptops are either Linux (which is also not as corporate common) or our of service.
- mjevans 3y ago
  Yes, but the MBP costs what like 1800 while the Windows laptops corporate is willing to buy often cost around half that or less? Some of that is surely profit, but some does seem to pay for engineering and part selection of things and methods that don't suck and don't self destruct 2 months past the warranty end date.
  - bsg75 3y ago
    > Yes, but the MBP costs what like 1800 while the Windows laptops corporate is willing to buy often cost around half that or less? Yes, also why the corp waited on those Lenovo orders rather than switching some developers to Macs.
    - chris11 3y ago
      And telling IT to support a new operating system company wide could be an expensive decision.
  - mardifoufs 3y ago
    Most Lenovo business laptops (thinkpad x/p series) are just as expensive as MacBooks for a business buyer. Maybe the E series are cheaper though. Though I agree that a lot of employers seem to not even bother with a business line laptop anymore so ThinkPads or MacBooks are out of the question. I'll never understand cheaping out on laptops though. It's an even more bone headed move than not offering drinks or coffee at the office, because employees having to use cheap laptops as their 40h a week tool is just going to hurt the business. That's not even considering the support burden that comes with having a fleet of bad or slow hardware
glonq 3y ago
Yeah, I was outfitting a new team in early 2020 at the same time that COVID hit. For us, it was a pain/expense to get computers and monitors. Everybody was kitting up for WFH so demand was high.

I didn't think PCs were part of the "pandemic surge" like Peleton was. If that was true then surely we should see a similar drop in MacBook sales. Do we have any figures on that?

secabeen 3y ago

Yes, sales down 40%, worse than the overall PC market decline of 28%: https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/04/17/apples-mac-had-a-tough-first-quarter-of-2023-in-a-bad-overall-pc-market https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/04/17/apples-mac-had-a-...

hn_throwaway_99 3y ago

All of the PC spike and drop data is in the article. The Mac slump is even worse: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/analysts-say-mac-sales-are-down-40-as-post-pandemic-pc-sales-slump-continues/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04/analysts-say-mac-sal...

ghaff 3y ago
Macs also have the Apple Silicon effect. My M1 Pro replaced a 2015 MacBook as my primary laptop. Though, in fact, for a lot of things (though not generative art and a lot of multimedia in general), the 2015 system is still fine. Don't expect to need a new laptop soon.
- jamiek88 3y ago
  Yeah I was thinking about this. I have a 2021 M1 Pro mac, an iPhone 14 pro and the M1 iPad. I have an oled LG TV and an Xbox series x. I won’t be looking to upgrade any of those for the foreseeable future. For the first time in my life I’m sated when it comes to tech. I’ve always had one eye on the next thing since I was 12 but right now all my devices have reached the point where they are so good I have no FOMO at all. I have no real interest in VR but will keep an open mind over apples head set. To be honest if Apple made a fucking toaster I’d probably be one of the losers lining up for it!
  - eludwig 3y ago
    To be fair, it would probably be a really nice toaster
  - ghaff 3y ago
    My wall-mounted TV is fairly old but dealing with a 65" plasma which would be difficult to dispose of even for money makes me lie down until the feeling goes away. Could use a new iPad but I used it a lot more when I was traveling more. Maybe again, especially if I do more traveling where I don't need a laptop. Could also replace my 8 year old iMac but works as a web browser and I can do everything on my laptop with external monitor--and there are pros and cons to doing stateful work. on 2 different machines.
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      Why would it be difficult to dispose of? How did you get it home? You can rent a truck from home depot for pretty cheap and I don't think dumps would deny you the ability to throw away a TV
      - ghaff 3y ago
        >How did you get it home? It was delivered. They most certainly would deny you in Massachusetts (not that my town has a dump; I have a dumpster) and none of the consumer recycling places like Best Buy will take TVs over about 35 inches or so. You'd have to trek around to find a commercial recycler and, at that point, I'm just going to stick it in the back of my garage until the end of time. In any case a more significant project than I need to take on right now. What I have is fine.

bsg75 3y ago

During the pandemic, some of my company's Lenovo laptop orders were backlogged by weeks (or months for a brief period). We had difficulty obtaining laptops for remote employees, even when lowering requirements to "Anything reasonably suitable". At the same time MacBook Pro's did not have significant changes in order times. I suspect this is because that for large corps, Macs are not as prevalent as Windows laptops. More "specialist" less "commodity". Personally, I have 10 year old Macs still usable. This message comes from a 2012 MacMini - laptop level hardware. Equivalent age Windows laptops are either Linux (which is also not as corporate common) or our of service.

mjevans 3y ago
Yes, but the MBP costs what like 1800 while the Windows laptops corporate is willing to buy often cost around half that or less? Some of that is surely profit, but some does seem to pay for engineering and part selection of things and methods that don't suck and don't self destruct 2 months past the warranty end date.
- bsg75 3y ago
  > Yes, but the MBP costs what like 1800 while the Windows laptops corporate is willing to buy often cost around half that or less? Yes, also why the corp waited on those Lenovo orders rather than switching some developers to Macs.
  - chris11 3y ago
    And telling IT to support a new operating system company wide could be an expensive decision.
- mardifoufs 3y ago
  Most Lenovo business laptops (thinkpad x/p series) are just as expensive as MacBooks for a business buyer. Maybe the E series are cheaper though. Though I agree that a lot of employers seem to not even bother with a business line laptop anymore so ThinkPads or MacBooks are out of the question. I'll never understand cheaping out on laptops though. It's an even more bone headed move than not offering drinks or coffee at the office, because employees having to use cheap laptops as their 40h a week tool is just going to hurt the business. That's not even considering the support burden that comes with having a fleet of bad or slow hardware

glonq 3y ago

Yeah, I was outfitting a new team in early 2020 at the same time that COVID hit. For us, it was a pain/expense to get computers and monitors. Everybody was kitting up for WFH so demand was high.