Apple may ship 3 million MacBooks, 750,000 Airs in fall
updated 10:40 am EST, Fri November 26, 2010
Apple seen shipping 3m MacBooks, 750K Airs in Q4
Apple is hoping to ship three million MacBooks this fall, tips from the PC industry said on Friday. Its shipments should reach about one million per month, 20 to 25 percent of which would be the new MacBook Air. The range would see at least 600,000 and as many as 750,000 of the ultraportables ship at the same time, based on the data culled by Digitimes' sources.
They supported their information with final IDC data not contained in the preliminary summer estimates that have been made public so far. Apple had already surged in computer market share during the summer, claiming 5.2 percent of world share versus 3.7 at the start of the year and a virtual doubling of US share from 6.7 percent to 12.6 percent. The upward trend supported another increase in production, the insiders implied. Apple shipped 2.64 million MacBooks this summer.
Holidays usually result in an upswing for the entire computer industry, including Apple, but the improvement from season-to-season or year-to-year can vary. MacBook numbers actually dropped in fall 2009 compared to a year earlier, a decrease owed primarily to the economic slump. The company has the advantage in 2010 both of a stronger economy and of the new MacBook Air to fuel sales.
The news may create trouble for contenders. Acer struggled in the summer as the decline of netbooks and a lack of demand for its typically low-end PCs cost it share, while HP grew very slowly compared to Apple's 28.5 percent growth.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Mar 2003
Been a long time coming...
Been a long time coming for apple to regain a significant amount market share. That to me is more important than number of units shipped. I believe the all time low was 2% in the US and 1.7% worldwide.
- A