IDC and Canalys: 2021 Saw Serious Growth for Mac

Image via Apple

13 JANUARY 2022 - Growth for Mac beat the tar out of growth for the wider PC industry for the end of 2021 and for the year as a whole. So say numbers from a couple of market trackers. 

First up - IDC. That firm had Mac shipments up eight-and-a-half-percent last quarter versus the same quarter a year earlier. That’s way better than the one-percent growth seen by the whole category, though that comparison’s a bit squishy. Both Dell and ASUS beat Apple’s growth, according to IDC. The category was actually dragged down by Lenovo, HP, and Acer - each of which saw sales decline.

Pulling back for the full year, Apple looks to have done much better. A piece from Cult of Mac on IDC numbers for the whole year shows Mac shipments growing 22% last year versus the year before. “That’s the highest annual growth rate of any computer maker,” according to the firm. The market as a whole saw shipments grow just under 15% last year, according to IDC. 

Writing up numbers from IDC competitor Canalys, Engadget says, “2021 was a very good year for the PC market.” If so, it was twice as good for the Mac. According to Canalys, PC shipments grew 14.6% from 2020 to 2021. For the same period, Mac sales grew 28.3%.