Is the Apple Mac Dying?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 2, 9:15AM EDT

Quick Read

Sales of Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) original products are not growing.
Its Macs make up only a tiny percentage of global PC sales.

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One of the notable things about Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) most recent quarterly report is that sales of its original products are not growing. They make up a tiny percentage of global personal computer sales, which is not changing. The Mac is not a relevant product in its category. Apple has left it behind. When Apple announces earnings, investors only care about the iPhone.

Mac sales in the most recent quarter were $7.9 billion, up from $7.5 billion in the year before. The revenue was only 8% of Apple’s $95.4 billion total.

A Sliver of the PC Market

Mac sales are only 9% of global PC sales. According to Apple Insider, the company shipped only 5.5 million units in the first quarter. The Mac runs the Apple iOS operating system, while most of the world’s PCs run Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) operating system. Windows was launched in 1985 and helped make Microsoft the most successful tech company in the world for years.

The Apple Macintosh was released in 1984. It was in a race with Windows to be the best-selling PC in the United States, a race Apple lost. In the most recent quarter, Windows revenue, which Microsoft calls the “More Personal Unit,” was $13.4 billion.

The Mac results are small despite Apple’s effort to sell it. Just two months ago, Apple launched the MacBook Air. Its base price is as low as $999. Apple only charges $899 per unit for “education,” which includes students. Apple says the new Mac has an 18-hour battery life.

The product comes in many configurations: the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, the iMac, the Mac mini, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro, which can cost over $10,000.

Why do people buy Macs at all? iOS also works with the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. It can handle “heavy workloads,” is “user-friendly,” and has strong battery performance.

Mac sales should be better with all these advantages, all the new product launches, the Apple brand, and the appeal of iOS. However, the Mac has never been more than a sliver of the PC market. And Apple, with all its leverage, has not been able to improve that. For Apple, it is a niche product.

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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.