Mac sales climb after Apple ditches Intel x86

At the WWDC 23 conference in June of recent years, Apple unveiled the Mac Pro equipped with the brand-new M2 Ultra chip, signifying the completion of the entire Mac product line’s transition from x86 processors to proprietary chips, a transformation that spanned approximately three years. This shift also encouraged Mac purchasers to switch from Windows to macOS, stimulating further user upgrades.

According to Seeking Alpha, during a conference call with analysts and investors, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook jubilantly announced that over the past quarter, Apple accomplished the plan to transition its entire product line to the M-series chipset, proclaiming that this metamorphosis has spurred robust upgrade activity and attracted a substantial number of new customers. In the second quarter of 2023, nearly half of Mac buyers were new users, and customer satisfaction with Mac within the United States region reached an impressive 96%.

Apple’s in-house chip development initiative has enabled it to exercise greater control over its product line. The harmonious integration of software and hardware has allowed various specialized accelerators within the SoC to maximize performance. By eliminating the need to pay Intel for processors, Apple has also managed to better control expenditure, thereby maximizing profits. Concurrently, Apple has garnered a higher market share. Market research data reveals that Apple sold 407,700 Macs in the second quarter of 2019, a figure that has escalated to 5.3 million by the second quarter of 2023, elevating its market share from 6.3% to 8.6%.

Although the PC market has been lackluster during this period, with the second quarter of 2023 witnessing a continued decline in PC shipments by 13.4% to 61.6 million units—marking six consecutive quarters of contraction—Apple has defied the trend. Its shipment volume has increased year-on-year by 10.3% to 5.3 million units, outperforming the top three competitors Lenovo, HP, and Dell, all of which have seen a decline, thus demonstrating a performance superior to its rivals.