Apple is "living well" despite the decline in the global computer market

(Dan Tri) - The global personal computer market is going through a volatile period, recording a decline for the first time after more than 2 years of continuous growth.

According to a report from market research company IDC, the number of computers shipped worldwide in the second quarter decreased by 4.9% over the same period last year, reaching 68.2 million devices. This decline ended a streak of nine consecutive quarters of growth, signaling a challenging period for computer manufacturers.

Computer companies are under pressure to increase product prices amid a scarcity of components (Photo: The Anh).

Most major brands such as Lenovo, HP and Dell are facing a decline in sales. Among them, HP suffered the deepest decrease of up to 9%, followed by Dell with 5% and Lenovo with a slight decrease of 2.1%.

Amid the gloomy picture of the entire industry, Apple suddenly became the only bright spot when recording an impressive growth of up to 10.1%. This achievement has helped the market share of Mac computers increase from 8.5% to 9.9%, the company's best figure in recent years.

One of the key factors helping Apple go upstream lies in the successful launch of the MacBook Neo product line in March. This model created strong shopping momentum while competitors began to struggle.

In addition, thanks to its huge production scale spanning from iPhone, iPad to Mac, Apple has a great advantage in achieving priority component supply agreements that competitors cannot compete with.

The cause of the current decline in the computer market stems from the global shortage of RAM and hard drive storage. The explosion of AI data centers has consumed a large amount of chip supply, causing component prices to increase.

MacBook Neo helps boost sales of Mac computers (Photo: The Anh).

To offset costs, manufacturers are forced to increase product prices. This leads to a paradox: although the number of machines sold decreases, the industry's revenue still tends to increase.

In fact, Apple did not stand out from the above spiral when it adjusted the price of the MacBook Air line to a starting level of about 1,300 USD at the end of June to cope with escalating production costs.

Analysts predict that the market remains uncertain as the memory shortage could last until early 2028. In this context, consumers are advised to shop early instead of waiting. Further price increases could make computers more expensive in the near future.