According to a new report on Thursday, July 12, from research firm IDC, Apple may finally get a feel of the sluggish PC sales in the United States. Apple sold fewer Macs in the U.S. during the second quarter compared to the same period a year earlier, IDC found. Should IDC's forecast prove to be accurate, this drop would mark Apple's first decline in three years.
The research firm estimated that Apple sold roughly 1.81 million Macs in the United States during the quarter that ended June 30, which means a 1.1 percent decline from the 1.83 million Macs sold during the same quarter a year ago.
"We looked at the sequential movement for Apple, which generally is a good predictor of what to expect, said IDC analyst David Daoud, pointing to quarter-by-quarter comparisons, as cited by ComputerWorld. "We believe there will be a normal pattern from Q1 to Q2, but we [lowered Apple's growth] for a number of reasons, including very weak demand in the broader economy."
Apple's first quarter this year was particularly rocky when measured sequentially. Apple hit record Mac sales in the fourth quarter of 2011, then sales dropped 22.7 percent sequentially, marking the biggest quarter-over-quarter decline in the Mac's entire history. The U.S. PC business has slumped overall, and IDC and rival research firm Gartner cited several factors that may be behind this sluggishness. Such factors include education, consumer uncertainty on whether to buy a computer or a tablet, as well as postponed purchases due to upcoming operating system upgrades.
The last time Apple's sales dropped year-over-year in the U.S. was in early 2009, when the country struggled with its worth economic crisis since the 1930s. IDC's new figures, however, are just an estimate, there is no guarantee they are accurate. According to Daoud, estimating Apple's U.S. sales is a "very difficult exercise."
Gartner, for instance, has a different view on Apple's U.S. Mac sales. It ranked Apple third as well, behind Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Dell, but it set sales at 1.91 million Macs, which would mean a 4.3 percent increase from the 1.83 million sold in the same period in 2011.
Moreover, the news may be worse than usual in what Apple is concerned, but it's not nearly as bad as what the research firms estimated for other major players in the industry. IDC said that HP's sales were 12 percent off for the quarter, and Dell dropped 9.2 percent for the quarter, while the overall U.S. PC business declined by 10.6 percent. Meanwhile, Gartner said HP's sales were off 12.7 percent and Dell's 9.5 percent, and the overall U.S. PC sales saw a 5.5 percent decline. Even if IDC's more bleak forecast proves accurate, Apple will still be able to take comfort in the fact that it beat the PC average for another quarter. Apple will report its second-quarter Mac sales figures July 24 during an earnings call with Wall Street analysts.
