While research companies from IDC y Gartner disagree on whether the sales of Mac are going down or going up, on which they do agree is on two things. The first is that Mac sales in Q3, were weaker during these two years, but they are still very in front than the rest of the PC industry.
Ahead in the sales find the new iMac 4K retina, IDC estimates that Apple sold 5,3 million Macs in 3Q 2015, which is equivalent to 3,4% year-on-year drop this year. Gartner instead estimates that sales have been 5,6 million, which represents a increase of 1,5%. Both companies agree that it is good news for Apple, because whether it is an increase or a decrease, they are important sales figures.
First, the two data sets show that Apple is outpacing the PC market as a whole, which is fell 7,7% (Gartner) o 10,8% (IDC). Second, they both agree that Apple increased its market share of the 6,9% to 7,5% according to (IDC) o 7,6% (Gartner).
Both firms said that Apple is losing a lot of sales abroad, where it is also verified by the Wall Street Journal.
Mac sales may have declined due to the strength of the US dollar, which made computers more expensive outside the US, said IDC analyst Jay Chou.
Apple was hurt by weak markets in Japan and Europe, said Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner.
We will have to wait until the end of this month to see the actual figures, when Apple reports the mac sales as part of their fiscal calendar Q3, where they publish the results in the 4Q on October 27.