MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, And MacBook Help Apple Grab 10 Percent Of Market Share For Notebooks
When it comes to selling notebooks, Apple isn’t as hot as the company used to be. However, they still have a decent chunk of the notebook industry. MacRumors has the news.
“The latest data from research firm TrendForce shows that MacBook sales continue to gain momentum in an otherwise declining notebook market. Apple passed Asus and Acer to become the fourth-largest notebook maker in 2015, reaching 10.34 percent market share compared to 9.3 percent market share in 2014.”
MacRumors adds that overall notebook shipments in 2015 were 164.4 million, down 6.3 percent from 175.5 million in 2014. HP and Lenovo have each grabbed 20 percent of the market share, and now Apple is close to Dell for third place. These numbers seem shocking to some people; a couple years back, it seemed like everybody owned some type of MacBook. If you walked into Starbucks, you probably saw at least 80 percent of people there using a MacBook.
So, what has happened? For one thing, the arrival of Windows 10 has tremendously helped PCs get their mojo back. There are many PCs that match the quality of Apple’s MacBooks. For example, the Dell XPS 13, which is a competitor to the 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, has a higher resolution screen than Apple’s devices and runs the latest Intel Skylake processors, which Apple has yet to update their MacBooks with.
In addition, the brand Apple lovers hate the most, Samsung, has just released the Ativ Book 9 Spin, which is similar to the 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina, but cheaper and actually — according to many reviews — better. In a recent review of the Book 9 Spin, the Inquisitr noted how the screen can be rotated 360 degrees and used as a tablet, although a pretty heavy one.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to the Apple line of MacBooks has been the Surface Pro 4, a laptop-tablet hybrid that is not only powerful but pen-enabled. Apple’s answer to the Surface Pro 4 was an enhanced iPad running iOS. Many believe Apple should have created a MacBook tablet, which would have produced lines outside the Apple Store similar to the iPad when it first came out.
Digitimes has some information on updates for MacBooks, but people are not sure if they are specifically talking about the MacBook Pro.
“Makers in the supply chain are expected to start producing new 12- and 13.3-inch MacBooks at the end of the first quarter or in early second quarter, and 15-inch models in the third quarter, said the sources.”
According to AppleInsider, there was a report that Apple will soon introduce a revamped MacBook Air lineup at the Worldwide Developers Conference in 2016 and that instead of coming up with a new 11-inch version, Apple will instead produce a 15-inch MacBook Air.
It has been agreed upon by most sources that Apple will update all their new MacBooks with Intel’s latest Skylake processor, which increases both performance and battery life. Several Windows 10 notebooks, including the Surface Pro, Surface Book, Dell XPS 13, and even the Samsung ATIV Book 9 Spin, already contain Intel’s Skylake processor.
Apple will have to make notable differences to their notebook products in order to make their MacBook brand No. 1 again. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air were always one step ahead of the curve but are now two steps behind.
[Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]
