Mac decline proves the magic has left the PC
Have you heard? Computer sales have cratered. Apple and Lenovo are only the latest to report slumps in shipments, with Apple’s decline in particular being marked out as noteworthy as Macintosh sales had hitherto remained strong even as other PC manufacturers struggled.
Indeed, Mac sales alone declined by some 40% compared to the last quarter of 2022.
Obviously this is not good news, especially when combined with news that the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, is now predicting a recession. Are consumers tightening their belts to such a degree that they will purchase no discretionary goods whatsoever?
Probably not. The 2023 PC sales cliff is hardly the end of the world. In fact, it’s just the normal ebbing and flowing of the market.
Analysts IDC noted that Apple’s shipment volume in Q1 2023 was “noticeably lower” compared to pre-pandemic levels. Read that sentence again. The decline in PC sales in 2023 is a reflection of the pandemic-era boom coming to an end. That sales have dropped below pre-pandemic levels is hardly a surprise, given virtually every business on earth responded to lockdown orders by purchasing and issuing laptops to the workers they were sending home.
PC sales may be massively outstripped by phones and facing a challenge from tablets, but as devices PCs, and laptops in particular, remain crucial tools, used in every sphere of life from education to the workplace to the home. As a result, numbers will recover in a couple of years as the usual upgrade and refresh cycle kicks in.
The sales slump did give me pause for thought. I myself have been mulling a new laptop purchase for a few months and may yet bite the bullet – on another 12-year-old ThinkPad.
The attraction of Apple’s M2 silicon notwithstanding, another black box from Lenovo kitted out with an Intel space heater will easily meet my needs. And unlike Apple’s efforts, it will do so with an at least half-useable keyboard (though the last truly decent laptop keyboard was found on the ThinkPad X220 and T420 models).
Tapping away
Having used Macintoshes since I started secondary education, including throughout art school and while working in the newspaper industry, it took a lot to force me away from Apple, but its truly awful keyboards were the final straw. It is a niche concern, I know, as few people type as much as a professional writer, but I only mention the sad decline of the laptop keyboard as it illustrates a wider point: switching from a Mac to Linux on a ThinkPad cost me all of a couple of hours of effort.
Now that almost all of our work, and indeed most of our software, is now accessed via the Internet, the Web specifically, the actual details of a computer’s architecture and operating system matter less than ever. Make no mistake, the drive toward universal and generic computers as tools is good for us as it means we can all communicate and collaborate with ease. At the same time, however, it means that computers have, in their ubiquity, become just a little bit boring.
Perhaps this is why retro computing has become a significant hobby, with enthusiasts hoping to explore and even expand the limits of antediluvian technology. Or perhaps that is driven by excess disposable income and normal human fear of and horror at the relentless march toward death, who knows?
Either way, the computer, once an object of fascination and desire, has become as exciting as toasters and washing machines: you may still want one that looks nice or has this or that feature, but, basically, they’re all the same now. Computer sales will return, but, for me at least, the magic has gone.
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers