On Strength of MacBook, Apple Notebook Sales Surge

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 9:07AM EST · Published Aug 15, 6:40AM EDT

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On Strength of MacBook, Apple Notebook Sales Surge — © Wikimedia Commons

Notebook sales rose 5.7% in the second quarter to 39.96 million units worldwide. Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) growth, driven by strong MacBook sales, was stronger, with unit sales up 17.1% to 3.98 million. Apple still trailed five other manufacturers, which shows how heated competition is. However, Apple products are priced above those of many other manufacturers.

According to TrendForce,

HP has retained first place in the shipment ranking for five consecutive quarters. In the second quarter, HP capitalized on getting contract bids for notebooks in North America and tapped into the demand related to back-to-school sales. HP widened its lead over second-place Lenovo by growing its shipments by 8.5% from the first quarter to reach a total of 9.35 million units.

Lenovo shipped just 8.05 million units in the second quarter, representing a year-on-year drop of 2.4%. The notebook market was relatively much slower in the Asia-Pacific region, and this has an impact on the brand’s performance.

Dell took third place in the global ranking with its second-quarter shipments increased by 21.3% compared with the first quarter and by 7.4% versus the same quarter a year ago. Successes in responding to North American tenders and growth in its Chromebook shipments allowed Dell to securely hold on to the third spot.

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Asus finished barely ahead of Apple, with sales higher by 9.3% to 3.99 million.

TrendForce does expect another strong showing by Apple in the current quarter:

The updated 12-inch MacBook helped expanded MacBook shipments by 17.1% from the first quarter to 3.98 million units. TrendForce also anticipates a double-digit sequential growth for third-quarter MacBook shipments as Apple will focus on the MacBook Pro series during the year’s second half.

What TrendForce researchers did not mention is that MacBook prices are often higher than those of laptops made by rivals. For example, Dell sells a number of laptops for under $700. The basic MacBook is priced at $1,299. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is priced at $2,399. This means that Apple’s margins on its laptops are likely higher than its competition.

Apple may be among the smaller brand-name makers of laptops, but it is likely the most profitable.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.