According to TrendForce, Apple managed to secure the fourth spot in global shipments of laptops in the third quarter. Apple notebook sales beat the market in quarterly growth; MacBook sales increased 11% whilst the market rose 7% overall.
The analysts believe Apple shipped 4.43 million Mac laptops in total across July, August, and September. Apple benefited from the launch of the 2017 MacBook Pro refresh ahead of the busy back-to-school season.
TrendForce said that Apple continues to see strong shipments of the 12-inch MacBook as well as strong reception to the MacBook Pro.
At its earnings call earlier this month, Apple reported the best quarter ever for overall Mac sales with 25 percent revenue growth.
The Mac business also set a new record for revenue across the entire financial year. Cook said that much of the quarterly Mac performance was due to the June MacBook Pro updates and a lively back-to-school period.
Apple beat out ASUS to become the fourth-largest brand of laptops in the third quarter. Overall, Mac notebooks represented 10.4% of total market share in the segment.
It’s fair to say that the new MacBook Pro redesign has been controversial. In late 2016, Apple abandoned legacy I/O ports to create a thinner and lighter laptop featuring all Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports.
The new MacBook Pro was also the first Mac to feature a Touch Bar instead of traditional function keys, although the appeal of the technology is still yet to be fully proven. In June, Apple refreshed the 2016 design with new internals. The 2017 MacBook Pro line features Kaby Lake processors, and more powerful discrete GPUs in the 15-inch configurations.
Apple’s MacBook Pro with Touch Bar lineup is significantly more expensive than its predecessors from 2015 and earlier. However, with demand holding strong, the new laptops have propelled Apple’s Mac revenue to record levels.
