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MacBooks account for 86% of total Mac sales; Mac desktops just 14%
- pdpi 2y agoI'd be curious to see what the industry-wide numbers look like, but I wouldn't be surprised to see PCs skew even higher in favour of laptops. Desktops are increasingly only relevant for specialised workloads like gaming or high-end content creation. Assuming that Apple still holds on to the lion's share of the content creation market, and that content creation as a whole is more common than high-end gaming, Apple would then have a larger share of their sales go to desktops than the industry average.
- where-group-by 2y agoI think the percentage of desktops would be higher for PCs just due to the number of offices outfitted with computers
- wil421 2y agoWhat offices have desktops? I think it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen one at a desk.
- where-group-by 2y agoAny front desks, if they have a computer it will be a desktop. Any cubicle farms, like call centres. University labs, Hospitals.
- kevinpacheco 2y agoSimilar to hospitals, I have seen SFF and AIO PCs all over outpatient medical offices.
- bongodongobob 2y agoManufacturing plants, gas stations, mechanic shops, every single retail store, restaurants, movie theaters, bars, call centers, farms, police stations, prisons, libraries, etc. Basically everywhere my guy. The world isn't just dev shops.
- dagw 2y agoMost of those aren't offices. And many of the computers at places like that either are POS terminals or other specialty hardware. And even at most of the places you listed, I bet you'll find most of the actual office work is still done on laptops. The accountants back at the office for the movie theatre and gas station companies almost certainly have laptops
- jonathanlydall 2y agoI would expect any call centre type operation would have desktops. The employees would never work from home (outside of a pandemic) and work set hours. So if desktops costs less, they will of course be used here since there is nothing to be gained from paying extra. Similarly, these users would not be using pricier Apple products.
- saratogacx 2y ago> The employees would never work from home (outside of a pandemic) and work set hours. This isn't quite true, the call center at my Co. is partially remote for call center staff, they use jabber and other VoIP connected to their PC's to work from home.
- criddell 2y agoI do Windows application development and the company I work for is all desktop machines. Some of the static analysis tools need a lot of RAM and CPU (I have 128 GB and a pretty new Threadripper with a lot of cores). There aren’t good laptop options for this type of development machine, at least not ones I’d like to use (ie minimal fan noise).
- dijit 2y agoI think since COVID I haven't seen an office that actively chooses those "SFF" PC's anymore, and those were as anaemic as laptops performance-wise... and weirdly: not much cheaper either. Granted, I don't see a lot of offices, but everywhere that I have seen seems to be choosing docking stations or USB-C enabled displays (Dell has an excellent selection of those) and some kind of business laptop like a Precision or Elitebook. Incidentally, those same screens are used for the staff who have Apple computers, and, largely, those are laptops too. Desktops seem to be practically dead except for workstation-grade ones in the businesses I've been to.
- usrusr 2y agoWhere the stationary work PC survives (I think): point of sale like desks that are half way between cash register (not personal at all) and notebook computer (each employee got their own). E.g. the computer feeding the screen at the hotel check-in counter. Not a big market relative to the number of systems existing because they aren't frequently replaced and when they are replaced, very cheaply, but the number existing is huge. And leaning to the PC side a lot, I think? Workstation-grade, I'd say, is extremely limited and shrinking fast. Particularly outside of the tinkerer niche. Think "gamer", even if I suspect that actual gaming isn't half as big in that niche as marketing approaches would suggest. But in any case very much not-Apple.
- crgwbr 2y agoA lot of that market is going to iPads, nowadays, too
- poisonborz 2y agoOffices? Company ITs buy laptops with docks. If not, SoC minipcs attached to monitors.
- swat535 2y agoWhat’s the point of using a laptop with a docking station? You still need an external keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. Is the main reason to save money? Or is it because laptops are now more powerful than desktop PCs? For example, do MacBook Airs paired with external monitors perform better than traditional PCs? If not, are people opting for MacBook Pros with docks instead? And if so, is a top-tier MacBook Pro with an external monitor and keyboard actually cheaper than a Mac Studio setup?
- raydev 2y agoEqually as powerful as a standard full size PC for most tasks but you can take it with you to meeting rooms and you can take it home.
- hereonout2 2y agoYep this feels like an "and the pope is catholic" type of headline. I really only know a handful of people with desktops and they are all gamers. My office is devoid of them aside a few specialist workstations.
- flohofwoe 2y agoI wouldn't underestimate the number of dedicated gaming PCs, but at the same time I don't have hard numbers to back that up. FWIW re the article, I'm surprised that the share of desktop Macs is so high compared to Mac laptops. I've never seen one in the wild outside shops, but plenty of people using their Mac laptops as desktop (eg connect a keyboard and monitor)
- nukem222 2y agoPresumably workstations are not just wandering around outside. Unless you're breaking into peoples' homes and offices i wouldn't expect to see much.
- pdpi 2y ago> I've never seen one in the wild outside shops, I think this is down to what I was saying: they're not general purpose machines anymore, they're mostly used for specialised workloads. If you don't spend any time in the sort of environment where those workloads are common, you won't see them. Similarly, many people will go all their lives without ever seeing a gaming PC, even though they're completely mundane in my (and, I assume, your) world.
- nottorp 2y agoWho buys desktops these days? - people who use their hardware to the full extent of what it's capable of, namely professionals of any kind and some power users that do the same things pros do but maybe not for monetary gains Apple is useful in some niches of that but not a lot of them. - gamers Apple has no idea about gaming, in spite of their mostly laughable recent attempts. The rest of the users who don't need all the power / don't even use a computer a lot are better served by a portable device with a built in monitor.
- petepete 2y ago> namely professionals of any kind I don't agree with this. Most professions are more than well served by any moderately specced computer, laptop or otherwise. If you're not crunching big numbers, rendering, or need speciality hardware a laptop is more than enough.
- nottorp 2y ago> If you're not crunching big numbers, rendering Yes, those are the professionals I was thinking of :) > People that don’t like trackpads or find them hard to use. On the wintelamd side, I see a lot of people taking out a laptop and a mouse out of their bag. No reason you can't do the same on apples...
- achenet 2y agoFor a while I had a Sweep [0] keyboard that I'd carry with me and use everywhere, even in trains when travelling. It was small enough to be placed on my laptop, one half to each side of the trackpad. I use a ThinkPad with Linux for personal use and a MacBook Air for my job, I used the Sweep with both. While I prefer trackpad to mouse, I imagine mouse enjoyers would probably do something similar. [0] https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep https://github.com/davidphilipbarr/Sweep
- sgt 2y agoI have several Macs and my daily is a MacBook Pro. We have a "house computer" that's in the living room. I recommend every family to have one. It's obviously an iMac - one of my favorite computers of all time.
- arccy 2y agothe age of the desktop is almost over. even if you have a desktop, you'll still most likely need a laptop. for most people, multi device just isn't worth it.
- nipperkinfeet 2y agoEach has their own purpose. I couldn't work with a laptop, even when docked at a station. Not appropriate for what I do. A laptop is simply an additional device for travel or bedtime. For whatever I do, I would always rather use a desktop computer than a laptop.
- vmilner 2y agoI don’t know why they stopped making 11inch MacBook Airs - the 1kg size makes them easy to carry around. I’ve recently picked up an old final 2015 8GB 256GB edition and it works fine with Linux on it.
- jsheard 2y agoThey probably dropped it because the Intel chips were hard to tame in such a small space, but with how efficient the M chips are it should be much easier to pull off now.
- nindalf 2y agoThe current 13 inch MacBook Air weighs 1.24kg. Is the extra 240g a dealbreaker?
- vmilner 2y agoLess the weight than the increased size for me. Admittedly I don’t use it for very long periods so the smaller screen is less of an issue. I think for my needs it just lets me stick it in a small backpack and forget it, and I prefer the keyboard to a tablet (though no doubt someone will tell me there are fancy tablets with keyboards now!)
- macNchz 2y agoI have an M1 13” Air and my wife still sometimes uses my old 2016 12” Macbook (920g). Whenever I pick hers up by accident I’m reminded how noticeably thin and light it is. It seems like a small difference but it changes the feel quite a bit.
- alexalx666 2y agoIf you update desktops once in 3 years you gonna loose some potential buyers. iMac is still a great concept, retina screen + computer in one good looking package, what's not to like. I had to by studio display and MacBook Pro b/c there was no 27 inch m4max iMac
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- YurgenJurgensen 2y agoThe iMac is a terrible concept whose main contribution to society is sending a lot of perfectly good LCD monitors to the scrapyard because they’re inseparably bonded to a computer that goes obsolete far faster then they do.
- jsheard 2y agoNot quite inseparably, there are unofficial driver board kits available which convert an iMac into a monitor. It would be much better if that were possible without having to do iMac surgery of course.
- AnonC 2y agoI completely get your point and agree with it (hence why I never wanted to buy an iMac). But I also see it as people having been used to having a separate monitor and being able to even treat a computer as a sum of parts where individual peripherals/parts can be changed or upgraded if and when needed or desired. For the current youngest generation of humans (Generation Alpha onwards), an iMac is the same as a smartphone or a tablet — neither of these have any interchangeable or individually upgradable parts and both being complete units in themselves. If something breaks or if the performance or function of one part isn’t good enough, the entire unit is (typically) to be replaced. The iMac is what the MacBooks and MacBook Pros have become over the years. If this trend continues, we probably may not see a computer, display, keyboard and mouse/pointer input made or sold separately. They may exist only in old movies, old TV shows and museums.
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- nextts 2y agoWFH makes a laptop essential.
- prinny_ 2y agoI have a MacBook Pro for my professional life and a high end PC for gaming and I can definitely say if it wasn’t for gaming I would have bought a mac for my personal usage as well. It’s not only the quality and portability that offer a good performance, it’s also that quite frankly I am extremely disappointed with windows nowadays.
- jedbrooke 2y agoI would also be curious at the stats on people who have a laptop, but exclusively (or 99% of the time) use it at a desk. I had a macbook but when it came time to upgrade, I got a mac mini since it was cheaper than a similarly specced macbook by about $400, and performed slightly better, plus I could just use it with the existing peripherals that I was docking the macbook to anyway. <tin foil hat time> I guess it’s easier to add planned obsolescence to a laptop since the battery only lasts so long, keyboard tends to be more flimsy, thermals always running hot (though that’s less of a concern with the apple silicon mac’s) </tin foil hat time>
- zoba 2y agoI’m curious what % of sales the iPhone 13 Mini had compared to the other iPhone 13 models. Evidently the percentage can slip so low Apple will cancel an entire beloved product line.
- walterbell 2y agoiPhone Mini may return in 2026 for $2500, as 5.5" iPhone that unfolds to 7.8" iPad, https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/18/foldable-iphone-rumors-sounding-serious/ https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/18/foldable-iphone-rumors-...
- hackerbeat 2y agoDesktop sales are so low because the 32 inch iMac is years overdue.
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- bitsandboots 2y agoI think nobody buys mac desktops because apple devices and desktop use cases barely overlap. Worst OS for gaming, they're not upgradable, and probably half the specialty software that demands something more than a laptop is exclusive to Windows or that the Windows PC is going to be better value for the thrifty professional.
- daft_pink 2y agoI think the natural share should be 22%, when their Apple Silicon rollout strategy made sense. I would really love to buy a Mac Studio, but it was two generations behind all year and now it’s a generation behind over a year into the M4 generation. Their Apple Silicon chip rollout strategy makes no sense and they should update their devices all at once or at least their high end devices. How can they release an M3 Ultra chip almost a year after they put an M4 chip in their iPad?
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- ChildOfChaos 2y agoMakes sense. I used to work in electronics retail around 10 years ago and barely anyone bought a desktop unless it was gaming. Now I work in corporate IT and all the desktops are being replaced during the next upgrade cycle. The desks have docking stations and everyone has a personal laptop that they can use for WFH or the office. Personally though, I prefer a desktop at home, I like to sit at my desk and use a big screen to get stuff done, if portable, a laptop is too annoying and I usually only want to look up stuff or view content, so for me Desktop + iPad is the best combo.