You have seen that Apple is a big competitor, but by far not the biggest and has taken the biggest hit regarding the marketshares?
Efficiency is good, of course. But its not the USP for a 2.500 $ up notebook. As shown by market developments.
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Mac sales fall by 40%
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Efficiency is good, of course. But its not the USP for a 2.500 $ up notebook. As shown by market developments.
I believe the reason the reason Apple has taken the biggest hit year-on-year is because this time last year, Apple was still riding high off the release of the first-gen M1 Pro/Max MacBook Pro's. Competitors began to struggle but Apple kept themselves afloat. Now they're dropping same as the rest of the PC industry but they have further to fall due to them sustaining their growth for longer.
Apple is not super big on the global scale but they own the premium market. When economy tanks, the premium market is the first to go. So yeah, they might want to review their pricing strategy
- M1 caused sales boom at a time people generally had more cash (pandemic - limited travel + working from home)
- redesigned Macs end 2021 / spec bumps as from second half 2022
- end of pandemic caused shift back to social + experiences (restaurants, going out, travel,…)
- M2 minor performance upgrade
- energy crisis / inflation is making people save their money a bit longer
- interest rate hikes making credit more expensive
- European sales double affected with weaker EUR causing price hikes, even on older products (even though rates are largely corrected, apple kept higher pricing)
- redesigned Macs end 2021 / spec bumps as from second half 2022
- end of pandemic caused shift back to social + experiences (restaurants, going out, travel,…)
- M2 minor performance upgrade
- energy crisis / inflation is making people save their money a bit longer
- interest rate hikes making credit more expensive
- European sales double affected with weaker EUR causing price hikes, even on older products (even though rates are largely corrected, apple kept higher pricing)
Overall great analysis from the OP, now as to why Apple isn't doing more:
Delays are not intentional, no one at Apple is sitting on products waiting to release it for some arbitrary reason, sometimes things like M2 just get delayed, so sure they could improve that but thats also like saying they should not have bugs in their software, everyone knows this, actually doing it is much harder. Also, I believe 1.5 years was always the plan around updating Mac silicon vs the annual iPhone update since they know people update Macs slower than iPhones, so then they can focus on bigger jumps anyway.
To me the main issue is Apple is not concerned with market share, they're concerned with profitability. Their pricing maximizes profitability at the expense of market share, something they are quite willing to accept given their overall dominant ecosystem. Sadly the days are gone when Apple was really trying to prove itself (and save itself from bankruptcy) and gain marketshare in those years when Jobs came back.
Still, the Mac is the best its ever been, apple silicon is amazing, marketshare is up overall since apple silicon, and I'm pretty happy with all that. It's just pricing that keeps these from being as disruptive as they should be in the overall industry, and agreed, that is frustrating.
And of course all the other points people have made about businesses just buying whats on contract or people already bought M1 waiting to upgrade etc. are valid, so there may be some logic to Apple's pricing after all, maybe they would lower it and marketshare would not change drastically, I'm not sure, but as for us the loyal fans, some of the pricing certainly seems outrageous which I think hurts Apple long term.
It seems even small tweaks would go a long way to improving the customer relationship and brand so people like us are passionate about recommending them to our friends and family no matter what, rather than saying, well they're great, just don't upgrade the storage or RAM too much or you'll need to sell your kidney.
Delays are not intentional, no one at Apple is sitting on products waiting to release it for some arbitrary reason, sometimes things like M2 just get delayed, so sure they could improve that but thats also like saying they should not have bugs in their software, everyone knows this, actually doing it is much harder. Also, I believe 1.5 years was always the plan around updating Mac silicon vs the annual iPhone update since they know people update Macs slower than iPhones, so then they can focus on bigger jumps anyway.
To me the main issue is Apple is not concerned with market share, they're concerned with profitability. Their pricing maximizes profitability at the expense of market share, something they are quite willing to accept given their overall dominant ecosystem. Sadly the days are gone when Apple was really trying to prove itself (and save itself from bankruptcy) and gain marketshare in those years when Jobs came back.
Still, the Mac is the best its ever been, apple silicon is amazing, marketshare is up overall since apple silicon, and I'm pretty happy with all that. It's just pricing that keeps these from being as disruptive as they should be in the overall industry, and agreed, that is frustrating.
And of course all the other points people have made about businesses just buying whats on contract or people already bought M1 waiting to upgrade etc. are valid, so there may be some logic to Apple's pricing after all, maybe they would lower it and marketshare would not change drastically, I'm not sure, but as for us the loyal fans, some of the pricing certainly seems outrageous which I think hurts Apple long term.
It seems even small tweaks would go a long way to improving the customer relationship and brand so people like us are passionate about recommending them to our friends and family no matter what, rather than saying, well they're great, just don't upgrade the storage or RAM too much or you'll need to sell your kidney.
Fairly certain Apple will do its best to make it more expensive than the 14. So start there.
I think we are having a perfect storm of unique challenges in the background...
BIG geo political changes in trade with China. US putting trade restrictions on tech. Apple forced to take production out due to this AND covid impacts as-well.
Chinas unique pandemic approach and delayed effects and likely current effects from people getting sick or having been sick.
Russia in war.
All in all, I think the past 3 years are very much affecting all business still... ADD on-top of that... Ai stepping in to the ring.. People being very bullish on this technology as a disruptor, true or false.. Apple is still not in the game OR hasn`t talked about anything in the space. ALL that is known is that they had an internal conference about Ai... AND some rumours that they will implement a language based coding language in their AR glasses to make apps for AR.
Pandemic along with Russian war is causing worldwide inflation and has a very destabilizing effect.
Imho. Apple needs to change very fast to accommodate these changes.
This would be my pitch to Apple:
A fully modular and fully repairable product line
With Apple AR/VR glasses, Apple lays the foundation for a fundamental shift in modern business. Apple is committed to building the best technology and doing it in accordance with international goals in environmental reduction in CO2 emissions and we are happy to announce that Apple is reducing their CO2 emission by 60% this quarter. With further reductions coming every quarter going forward...
Apple will achieve this by investing in AR and a fully modular and repairable design of their entire product line.
Further on, Apple is releasing their 1st 3d Printer that melts specific plastics for immediate use to make parts for their products.
We are happy to introduce the 1st Apple product that is fully modular, the new iMac! 499$ (Requires Apple AR/VR glasses for assembly)
...And so on.
No one product is going to save Apple going forward, but Apple COULD sell their products for below PC prices IF they outsource the building and assembly to the customer, an Apple 3D printer would further reduce costs if it is able to print parts for the product...
And the marketing writes itself... Apple goes green... Apple shows the way forward towards saving the environment...
IF someone is struggling with assembly or is not interested in doing it, they can offer assistance at Apple stores for a flat fee, OR they can buy the package at an Apple store or an Apple certified assembly business and get it assembled there, with variable pricing.
Apple could shift the entirety of what China offers to their Apple stores and the customer. With currently existing technology, an Apple store could print metal parts by order, reducing the need to ship goods further.
I would be onboard, and frankly the fact that no company has gone this route yet is crazy... They could be the IKEA of computers... And IKEA has outsourced assembly to the customer forever... (I hate IKEA... But they DO understand how to do business) Also, they sidestep China and assembly completely... They save on every part by shipping flatter and sourcing more local.
Apple would be free to invest heavily in Apple Silicon and separate modules for diverging use cases, and of course design of products.
I would be ok with a Mac Pro I can build myself, that I KNOW will not be replaced next year... OR if it is, then I would be able to just change CPU/GPU for a few years, and then I would be able to bring the motherboard in for an exchange OR do a partial rebuild..
In conclusion... There ARE options to face unprecedented challenges, a crisis can be an opportunity to make drastic changes that make sense...
BIG geo political changes in trade with China. US putting trade restrictions on tech. Apple forced to take production out due to this AND covid impacts as-well.
Chinas unique pandemic approach and delayed effects and likely current effects from people getting sick or having been sick.
Russia in war.
All in all, I think the past 3 years are very much affecting all business still... ADD on-top of that... Ai stepping in to the ring.. People being very bullish on this technology as a disruptor, true or false.. Apple is still not in the game OR hasn`t talked about anything in the space. ALL that is known is that they had an internal conference about Ai... AND some rumours that they will implement a language based coding language in their AR glasses to make apps for AR.
Pandemic along with Russian war is causing worldwide inflation and has a very destabilizing effect.
Imho. Apple needs to change very fast to accommodate these changes.
This would be my pitch to Apple:
A fully modular and fully repairable product line
With Apple AR/VR glasses, Apple lays the foundation for a fundamental shift in modern business. Apple is committed to building the best technology and doing it in accordance with international goals in environmental reduction in CO2 emissions and we are happy to announce that Apple is reducing their CO2 emission by 60% this quarter. With further reductions coming every quarter going forward...
Apple will achieve this by investing in AR and a fully modular and repairable design of their entire product line.
Further on, Apple is releasing their 1st 3d Printer that melts specific plastics for immediate use to make parts for their products.
We are happy to introduce the 1st Apple product that is fully modular, the new iMac! 499$ (Requires Apple AR/VR glasses for assembly)
...And so on.
No one product is going to save Apple going forward, but Apple COULD sell their products for below PC prices IF they outsource the building and assembly to the customer, an Apple 3D printer would further reduce costs if it is able to print parts for the product...
And the marketing writes itself... Apple goes green... Apple shows the way forward towards saving the environment...
IF someone is struggling with assembly or is not interested in doing it, they can offer assistance at Apple stores for a flat fee, OR they can buy the package at an Apple store or an Apple certified assembly business and get it assembled there, with variable pricing.
Apple could shift the entirety of what China offers to their Apple stores and the customer. With currently existing technology, an Apple store could print metal parts by order, reducing the need to ship goods further.
I would be onboard, and frankly the fact that no company has gone this route yet is crazy... They could be the IKEA of computers... And IKEA has outsourced assembly to the customer forever... (I hate IKEA... But they DO understand how to do business) Also, they sidestep China and assembly completely... They save on every part by shipping flatter and sourcing more local.
Apple would be free to invest heavily in Apple Silicon and separate modules for diverging use cases, and of course design of products.
I would be ok with a Mac Pro I can build myself, that I KNOW will not be replaced next year... OR if it is, then I would be able to just change CPU/GPU for a few years, and then I would be able to bring the motherboard in for an exchange OR do a partial rebuild..
In conclusion... There ARE options to face unprecedented challenges, a crisis can be an opportunity to make drastic changes that make sense...
Not buying it, previously I would spec up as I considered the longevity could be substantial. Today I just purchase the cheapest Mac I can get by with as Apple has turned them into throwaway products.
I'm potentially on my last Mac as Apple is so two faced, being a major contributor of e-waste, yet claims to be environmentally friendly what a load of BS. Only thing Apple cares about is it's value on the stock market....
Q-6
People fall for the upgrades though. Every day there is a "Is 8GB of Ram enough for me" and then since M2, they are using a single nand for the SSD in the base model now which people find out with basic research. So sure, people like you and I think differently but the majority of general consumers stress over it and pay more whether they need it or not.
Not just Apple, too many devices are now throwaway. Easier and cheaper for them to create non-upgradeable units and then there is the faster re-purchase cycle which is a bonus for them.
Indeed, that will never change. Apple will always use the eco-system to lock customers in as far as they can. The general consumer is their main target market, that is the one they can manipulate and make the most from.
I do the same with my 17"s, simply dont need max performance 24/7. Even a lot of games I limit to 60 fps as there is little benefit for the majority and prefer the reduced fan noise.
Q-6
How long have you had your Razer Blade? I’ve seen people complain about QC issues and it scared me away.
IDC's numbers are never completely accurate. Be patient and wait for the official Apple numbers on 4 May 2023
Just not willing to pay a premium for Apple to maintain it's generous margins and reduce performance. I like my M1 Mac a lot, equally it's far more limited than the previous Intel based models. The saving grace is the extensive runtime on battery and the only reason I keep a modern Mac...
Q-6
Three factors:
PC Pain Persists in Q1 2023 Due to Excess Inventory and Poor Demand, According to IDC Tracker
IDC examines consumer markets by devices, applications, networks, and services to provide complete solutions for succeeding in these expanding markets.www.idc.com
View attachment 2186762
What is most surprising here is that Apple's share growth is worse than other PC makers. It seemed like Apple was going to continue to gain market share in PCs with Apple Silicon effortlessly. But this didn't happen in Q1.
I'm going to speculate why:
The most frustrating thing about following Apple Silicon over the last 2 years is just how passive Apple's strategy is. Hopefully, Apple is learning a lesson here and will be more aggressive going forward. No more delays. No more holding back. Less stingy on RAM and SSD.
- People are going back to buying cheaper laptops due to the economy, inflation, and exchange rates. Apple suffers in this environment because they're generally less flexible when it comes to dropping prices.
- M2 was late by ~8 months (assuming they want to release a new gen every year).
- M2 Pro/Max, consequentially, was also late by 4 months.
- M2's performance increases did not knock it out of the park. No Ray Tracing support. No drastic increase in ST. Still using a node in 5nm family.
- Ideally, we should be on M3 right now.
- M1, Pro, Max were so good that people will wait for M3 or M4 to upgrade again. I'm in this camp.
- Still no MacBook SE to capture the value Walmart/Costco Windows laptop buyers
- Still no 15" Macbook Air, which will very likely become the #1 selling Mac when it's released
- RAM and SSD are expensive upgrades and 8/256 base is finally not enough
1) General laptop market trend
2) An abnormal portion of the Mac user base upgraded in the M1 cycle, momentarily inflating the sales, resulting in a massive subsequent drop
3) Users are less inclined to upgrade from M1 because its power.
I am in camp 2 and 3. There’s essentially no upgrade warranted regardless of what they present. My computer finally caught up with the software. I have no hardware frustrations anymore.
Over three years - its been an excellent laptop, while the battery is not ideal - it is a gaming laptop after all, everything else has been top notch. Very Mac like in its design, fit and finish
I think Apple is doing fine. Maybe their numbers are down because they had a really great Q1 2022, which was when the NASDAQ was at its peak, credit was cheap, people were working from home and willing to pay for home-office upgrades, but cabin fever was setting in and people were also itching to spend money. Also people had figured out that the M1 processor was a major leap forward.
So how could they keep that momentum going during an economic downturn? They could start by making better customer-forward decisions. For example, $200 is an absurd amount of money for a computer keyboard. Sell a cheaper one that doesn't feel like a compromise. There's absolutely no reason for a desktop computer keyboard to be wireless, since it's connecting to a fully wired device. But how can you expect people, who are made out of and surround by water, to spend that kind of money on a keyboard that isn't waterproof? That's outlandishly dumb. Apple needs to hire an Executive Vice President in charge of Are You Sure You're Not Being Stupid or Mean. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit. I don't need an assortment of colors for no extra charge, I need at least half a TB of SSD for no extra charge. Collect your premium pricing on the rose gold anodize, not the chips that make the box useful. I could justify buying a new Mac every year if every year they released one that was significantly faster and more powerful, with more RAM and more storage, at a price that doesn't feel like a once-per-decade purchase.
So how could they keep that momentum going during an economic downturn? They could start by making better customer-forward decisions. For example, $200 is an absurd amount of money for a computer keyboard. Sell a cheaper one that doesn't feel like a compromise. There's absolutely no reason for a desktop computer keyboard to be wireless, since it's connecting to a fully wired device. But how can you expect people, who are made out of and surround by water, to spend that kind of money on a keyboard that isn't waterproof? That's outlandishly dumb. Apple needs to hire an Executive Vice President in charge of Are You Sure You're Not Being Stupid or Mean. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit. I don't need an assortment of colors for no extra charge, I need at least half a TB of SSD for no extra charge. Collect your premium pricing on the rose gold anodize, not the chips that make the box useful. I could justify buying a new Mac every year if every year they released one that was significantly faster and more powerful, with more RAM and more storage, at a price that doesn't feel like a once-per-decade purchase.
thats because of china’s 4Q22 zero tolerance city wide policy that ceased mid December 2022 finallly. Q123 was stlll impacted by manufacturing processes that slowed down even if it was finally over with. As we progress thru later months things we’re getting more normalized. But Apple warned investors in 4Q22@ about this. So the comments Apple is not doing well, were sufficiently explained. As mentioned wait for the May earning statement.
I own 1 Apple keyboard that came with an iMac that I bought in 2010. We mostly have CoolerMaster TKL keyboards which were $120 or so many years ago and they are great keyboards but I don't think that they make them anymore. There were a lot of $80 - $200 mechanical keyboards back then and then Chinese knockoffs came on the market and killed the sales of the name brands. I see that this happened in the headset space too. Apple and a few other brands can still sell at high premiums but there's no doubt that the $15-$40 headsets or keyboards has had an impact on the premium segments.
I could theoretically use my M1 Macs for ten years unless there are some applications coming along that require far more power. I still use a 2010 iMac from time to time and I have a 2015 MacBook Pro as my backup laptop. The Apple Silicon stuff is really good and I'd expect it to last even longer than the vintage stuff because of less heat output.
One reason I like a desktop from Apple is that I can just add external storage. The Studio is nice for that because it has so many ports. It's not elegant (I don't have one of those nice stand-type enclosures) but it gets the job done. Cheap. 4 TB NVMe from Crucial is $220 at Amazon right now. The problem is I don't need that much space but it's tempting.
We are told public spending is down due to inflation and a cost of living crisis throughout the western world. I don’t know many people itching to spend money on a computer when monthly energy bills are at least £500 now. I’d say Mac sales are down along with computer sales in general. If enough people stop spending, it will pass the pressure onto the likes of Apple to lower their prices.
Our electricity bill was $400 in January which is the highest it has ever been. It dropped into the $200s in February and was in the $100s for March. The reason for the high prices here were because of winter and cold temperatures. Our power bills are lowest in the spring and fall. There have been many threads on our state reddits about what people were paying for electricity and heat this past winter and some were paying four digits. Prices basically doubled from last year.
So we try to be efficient with power usage. The big items are heating, cooling, refrigerator, etc. The Mac Studio, Mac mini and MacBook Pro are all efficient and I really appreciate that. I've seen some analysis comparing older Intel Macs to Apple Silicon Macs indicating the savings in electricity costs on the latter.
But yes, higher food, fuel, power and other costs means you have less disposable income for Macs. If you make your living using your Mac, then it's an easy decision. If not, then you upgrade when the machine has died or is otherwise unusable.
Yes the part about energy is something most M1/M2 Mac owners can at least know their gear is savings some money compared to the older Intel based macs. Still like you mentioned in part of the world it tougher to cope with all this rate increases. Will it decrease prices that Apple sets probably not much, but it does inspire retailers to discount a lot in the states at times.
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Since the M1 macs are top notch, people are not buying new macs...they are build to last
Probably a new boom in sales will be when N3 will began, and they will offer again an overall boost in battery, performance and others little things
This sales fall just show how people are loving their M1 family macs
Probably a new boom in sales will be when N3 will began, and they will offer again an overall boost in battery, performance and others little things
This sales fall just show how people are loving their M1 family macs
Is already happening, hence the single nand SSD's on the M2 Mac's. Apple will happily throw the customer under the bus way before it's profits & margins.
That said I think Apple is doing it's best to keep the price of the Mac levelled as they know it's a niche market, further marginalised by Apple Silicon and the common consumer is where the bread & butter lies. Likes of us here, pro or not we are literally a very small minority within a minority...
Q-6
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