Apple Mac Sales Are Dying

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 11, 7:15AM EDT

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Apple Mac Sales Are Dying — © ViewApart / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Apple’s Mac, known as the MacIntosh when launched in 1984 by Steve Jobs, was supposed to be a personal computer (PC) killer. It never happened. While sales did well for many years, they could not match those of Microsoft’s Windows-powered PCs.

Mac shipments have risen in many quarters since 2006 and peaked in early 2022. However, Apple’s Mac revenue has fallen sharply recently. In the most recently reported quarter, Mac revenue was $7.6 billion. That was down from $11.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Several analysts believe that people returning to work after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic hurt Mac sales. People bought Macs to work from home. That theory assumes Macs were more popular than PCs when people could not go to their offices. (Here are five reasons to avoid Apple products today.)

Another theory is that the Mac product release cycle hurt sales year over year. Apple released fewer new Mac models in 2023 than in 2022. That may be true, but there is no solid evidence that the theory is accurate.

Another theory is that people have turned to tablets. In Apple’s case, there is little support for that viewpoint. iPad revenue was $6.4 billion in the most recent quarter, compared to $7.2 billion in that quarter the year before. The decline is not as bad as Mac revenue, but it is a drop nevertheless.

One thing is certain about Mac sales: They are part of a decline in product revenue that has stolen Apple’s overall revenue growth. Wearable and watch revenue fell from $9.7 billion a year ago to $9.3 billion in the most recent quarter.

As Mac revenue drops, along with other Apple products, revenue from Services and iPhones is what is left to lift revenue. That is not working.

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.