The global PC market declined for the first time after nine consecutive quarters of growth, but Apple Mac bucked the trend and expanded, becoming one of the few manufacturers to achieve both shipment and market share growth in an environment of tight memory supply and rising costs. According to data from research institutions, global PC shipments fell by 4.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, totaling approximately 68.2 million units, ending the sustained growth trend since 2024. Anticipating further tightening of memory supplies, manufacturers were forced to stock up in advance, causing inventory levels to rise.
Against the background of rising costs of key components, PC manufacturers generally increase terminal selling prices, partially passing on cost pressures to consumers. Contrary to the overall weak market, Apple shipped approximately 6.7 million Mac units this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%, and its PC market share also increased from 8.5% to 9.9%. In sharp contrast to Apple, Lenovo, HP and Dell all recorded shipment declines during the same cycle. Among the world's top four PC suppliers, Apple is the only one to achieve significant year-on-year growth, even as it simultaneously increases Mac prices even as memory prices rise.
The strong performance of Apple Mac coincides with the launch of MacBook Neo in March this year. Although Apple has raised prices for Mac products under pressure from rising memory costs, market demand has remained strong, supporting the expansion of overall shipments and market share. Thanks to its scale advantages across iPhone, Mac and other hardware businesses, Apple has stronger supply chain bargaining power in this round of memory shortages and has obtained relatively sufficient memory quotas. Better memory supply allowed Apple to maintain Mac shipment growth in the quarter while expanding market share amid widespread pressure on the overall PC industry.
Strong demand for MacBook Neo and the broader Mac lineup has provided Apple with growth momentum during a period of tight memory supply. Many supply chain manufacturers are still chasing MacBook Neo orders. Apple has previously stated that demand for the entire Mac product line is strong, and its production capacity was once unable to fully absorb market orders. Against this background, Apple has become one of the few "beneficiaries" in the PC market under the dual pressure of rising memory prices and limited supply.
However, from a revenue perspective, traditional PC manufacturers have offset the impact of declining shipments to a certain extent by raising prices. Despite the decline in shipments, overall PC revenue continued to grow as average selling prices increased faster than demand fell. Industry observers believe that this quarter may also become a staged "high" for Apple in this round of market conditions. Apple’s new round of Mac price increases implemented at the end of June is expected to have an impact gradually in subsequent quarters.
For the PC industry as a whole, there are questions about the sustainability of this round of price hikes. As retail channels gradually digest the inventory previously purchased at higher memory and SSD costs, it will become increasingly difficult for terminal prices to continue to remain high. Jitesh Ubrani, research director at IDC, expects this memory shortage to last until early 2028. In the meantime, price pressure on bulk RAM and SSDs may still worsen.
The latest data from IDC shows that the overall global PC market shipments fell by 4.9% in the second quarter of 2026. Lenovo still maintains the lead in shipments, but major manufacturers generally face dual pressures on shipments and costs. Looking ahead to the second half of this year, PC market growth is expected to slow further. On the one hand, manufacturers need to continue to clear high-cost inventory, and on the other hand, they also need to prepare for a new round of memory price increases that may come in 2027.
In this cycle, Apple and other large hardware companies have gained an advantage in the battle for memory chip resources by virtue of their larger procurement scale and more solid supplier relationships. In contrast, small and medium-sized PC manufacturers will face tighter supply, higher costs, and increasingly compressed profit margins. For the entire industry, memory shortages and price increases have evolved from a single cost issue to a key variable affecting the industrial structure and market structure. In this structural adjustment, Apple Mac is temporarily in a relatively favorable position.