Buried in Apple's sales figures for the recently concluded holiday quarter is an interesting statistic: The notebook line (MacBook, Air and MacBook Pro lines) exceeded 70 percent of Macintosh sales for the first time ever.
Why? Certainly, the introduction of new MacBook and MacBook Pro models with Apple's unibody aluminum enclosure were an overdue update to the lineup.
But there's more to the story. Apple's notebook sales are, just like PC notebooks, trending a larger and larger part of Apple's mix. This growth is more the result of Apple selling greater numbers of notebooks rather than cannibalization of its desktop market.
From October to December 2008, Apple sold 728,000 desktops -- a 26% drop from Q1 2008, and a 14% rise over desktop sales in Q1 2007. But MacBook sales records were smashed with a surprising 1.8 million units sold in that quarter. That's more than twice the quarterly figures from 2006.
Apple is shipping way more MacBooks than Mac Pros -- but desktops remain an important market for the company.
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Or, it could be that both the iMac and the Mac Pro are overdue for a refresh to new 4 and/or 8 core chips and perhaps new designs to go with the new 64 bit Snow Leopard OS.
Desktops never sell well when possible updates are on the not too distant horizon.
Same thought as Al... the Mac Pro is now a year old with no refresh, the iMac is almost a year old. The Mac Pro does not even have DDR3 and has a slower bus than their laptop!
Let's face it. Apple's laptops are excellent -- other than the idiocy of not offering a matte screen on anything smaller than a 17, which I trust will soon be rectified.
And their desktop range is highly segmented, unfocused, and inflexible.
If you want a headless computer you can use with a separate monitor, for the sake of decent ergonomics, you are either stuck with the hopelessly inadequate Mac Mini, or the hopelessly overpriced Mac Pro. The iMac is great if you're OK with an all-in-one solution, but once again, where's the matte monitor option? And why can you not adjust the monitor height? A 24 inch iMac in particular is absolutely hopeless on a standard height desk; you have to have it down on a typing table or something.
Apple always used to have a decent mid-priced headless machine, whether that was a $1,600 PowerMac, or more recently an $800 Mac Mini that was reasonably current in terms of specification. The Mac Mini hasn't been updated in eons, and the "entry-level" Mac Pro is a $2,500 screamer that is totally redundant to anyone not doing either massive photo or video projects, massive serving, or massive statistical calculations.
I'd agree with DBX.
I'm buying a Macintosh Pro when the new models come out. But I'm not going to spend $3000 for last year's technology. I can manage to wait, limping along with my old PowerMac G5.
I'm also planning on buying a Mac mini for a friend of mine. But, again, I'm not spending $800 for a 2GHz Core 2 Duo with 1GB of RAM. At this point, I'm almost tempted to buy a a Dell Studio Hybrid and hack Mac OS X onto there.
I think I am seeing a trend away from the desktop to portable computing and this has been ongoing for the past few years. I have literally stopped using my iMac since last year and so I donated it to my husband who has been complaining about the smaller size of his desktop computer. I am doing everything on my MacBook Pro and my iPhone and love this new way of computing better than the old way. I suspect a lot of people are catching up with this new trend also.
I agree with the previous commenters, the notebooks exceeded 70% of Mac sales due to circumstances. The notebook line has just been revised and the entire desktop line is long in the tooth. The result seems quite logical. Usually, the percentage is fairly stable, according to the table it's hovering around 60 and 65% since Q306.
Besides, the first graph is misleading. The vertical scale doesn't start at 0 and the maximum value is not 100. It should range from 0% to 100%.
Hardly "buried". The percentage was mentioned in the public conference call. Front and center.
Another good piece of analysis was posted last week. I found it quite insightful as it also demonstrates the rise in notebook sales and drop in desktop sales
Evidence of slowing Mac growth - 2 consecutive quarters of deceleration
http://switchtoamac.com/site/mac-growth-slowdown-2-consecutive-quarters-...
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