Apple Mac sales decline affects Arm PC performance

Recently, the research analysis firm Mercury Research provided data on the x86 processor market share for the past quarter, revealing that AMD experienced year-over-year growth in desktop, mobile, and server domains during the third quarter of 2023. Mercury Research has now released comparative data between x86 and Arm processors, clearly showing that Apple Mac’s declining sales in recent quarters have impacted Arm’s overall share in the PC market.

According to Tom’s Hardware, while shipments of Arm-based devices saw an increase in the third quarter of this year, the growth was significantly less than that of x86, leading to a decrease in market share. Arm processors accounted for 10.6% of the PC market, a decline of four percentage points from the same period last year, which was 14.6%. The majority of PCs with Arm processors are Apple Mac products, with Qualcomm and MediaTek chips having a minor share, many of which are used in Chromebooks.

Arm’s share in the PC market includes various Chromebooks, desktops, and mobile PCs equipped with Arm processors, continuing the downward trend from the previous quarter. The survey indicated that Arm processors are increasingly popular in Chromebooks, while Intel’s x86 processors are seeing a decline in the entry-level market.