2024 Apple Mac Global Shipment Volume: A

2024 Apple Mac Global Shipment Volume: A Stable Fourth Place with Mild Growth Against the Trend, A Guardian of the High-End Market

 

After two years of downturn in the global PC market, the 2024 shipment data has finally shown signs of recovery. As a representative of the high-end PC market, Apple Mac's annual performance has attracted much attention. According to statistics from authoritative institutions such as Canalys and IDC, its global shipment volume in 2024 remained stable in the range of 22.45 million to 22.9 million units. Among them, Canalys provided an accurate figure of 22.82 million units, while IDC disclosed 22.458 million units. The slight differences in statistical calibers among different institutions also confirm the credibility of this data.

 

From the perspective of market structure, Apple firmly ranked fourth among global PC manufacturers in 2024, with a market share of approximately 8.7% to 8.9%. This ranking has maintained a stable trend in recent years. The top three positions were held by Lenovo (61.871 million units, 24.2% market share), HP (52.991 million units, 20.7% market share) and Dell (39.096 million units, 15.3% market share) respectively. Notably, Apple was one of the few top five manufacturers that achieved year-on-year growth. IDC data showed that its 2024 shipment volume increased by 4.3% compared with 21.532 million units in 2023, while statistics from MacTech indicated a growth rate of 4.5%. Against the backdrop of the overall market growth of only 1.3%, this achievement is particularly remarkable.

 

When breaking down the quarterly performance, Apple Mac presented a recovery trajectory of "low in the first half and high in the second half". At the beginning of 2024, quarterly shipments were under pressure due to inventory adjustment and weak demand. Although shipments in the third quarter still saw a year-on-year decline of 11% (5.4 million units shipped), a significant rebound was achieved in the fourth quarter. IDC data showed that shipments in Q4 reached 7 million units, an increase of 18.6% compared with 5.9 million units in the same period of 2023; another set of data disclosed by Sina Finance showed that 6.28 million units were shipped in Q4, with a year-on-year growth of 4.6%. This recovery is consistent with the overall warming rhythm of the global PC market. The replacement demand brought by the end of support for Windows 10 and the advancement of Apple's own product iteration cycle jointly promoted the growth at the end of the year.

 

Apple's shipment performance has always been closely tied to its product strategy. The M-series chips remain the core competitive advantage. With the balance between performance and power consumption, Apple has consolidated its user base in professional fields such as creative workers and educational institutions. However, the decline in some quarters of 2024 also exposed challenges: the production of M2 chips was suspended in the first half of the year due to insufficient demand, reflecting the decreased sensitivity of consumers to regular updates; the performance in the Chinese market was particularly under pressure. In the first quarter of 2025, shipment volume decreased by 9% year-on-year, and the market share dropped to 13.7%, with revenue declining for seven consecutive quarters.

 

From a horizontal comparison, Apple's "niche advantage" is very distinct. Although its shipment volume is only about one-third of Lenovo's, its dominance in the high-end market is irreplaceable - in the price range of over 10,000 yuan, MacBook has maintained a leading market share for a long time. This positioning determines that Apple will not pursue the ultimate scale of shipment volume, but maintain profitability through ecological integration and differentiated experience, which forms a sharp contrast with brands such as ASUS that pursue shipment growth.

 

The 2024 shipment data outlines a clear development profile for Apple Mac: in the recovery wave of the global PC market, it failed to achieve explosive growth, but achieved a steady recovery relying on the moat of the high-end market. For users concerned about the Apple ecosystem, this performance not only confirms the market resilience of M-series chip products, but also indicates that Apple may need more breakthrough products in the future to achieve further progress in the shipment competition.