Like its comrades and nevertheless competitors IDC and Gartnerla maison Strategy Analytics a determined that in the first quarter, Apple had managed to pull out of the game on the portable PC market. A market that overall has taken a nose dive.
It must be said that the first quarter of 2021, with which the comparisons are made, had been very buoyant: the world was still immersed in the midst of a pandemic and sales of laptop computers were going well. It was necessary that teleworkers equip themselves. Despite this 7% drop in shipments year-on-year, Strategy Analytics estimates that demand remains strong, in particular thanks to new hybrid office/home working methods.
The drop in deliveries is mainly due to the return of schoolchildren and students to schools. Education budgets have been largely devoted to IT purchases over the past two years, but the end of health restrictions have shifted them to other items. The computers that suffer a lot are the very popular Chromebooks in the education sector in the United States. They were a little less so during the first three months of the year.
In fact, with a 67% decline and volume of 4 million units, Chromebook shipments hit their lowest point in the first quarter, argues Strategy Analytics, ” including compared to pre-pandemic level “. The Chromebook business, however, remains very small outside of American schools.
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As for the MacBook Air and Pro, Apple shipped 6.1 million units, a figure up 4%. Only Dell does better with +5% and a volume of 10.5 million. The laptops of these two manufacturers have found favor with customers because of their robustness and the performance of these machines (it is the premium models from Dell which have fueled the growth of the group).
