Apple Dominates AI-Capable PC Market with M4 Chips and Apple Intelligence

Apple's Mac Market Share Is Growing Faster Than Its Three Main Competitors, Leading The Industry In AI With M4 Chips And Apple Intelligence

Apple upgraded its MacBook Pro lineup last year with its M4 series of chips, and it appears that the devices have contributed significantly to the company's market share. More importantly, the company also unveiled its Apple Intelligence feature for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and this, too, is reflected in the overall market share in the last quarter of 2024. According to the latest report from Canalys, Apple's market share for Mac grew at a faster pace than its top competitors in the Windows category during the same timeframe. Take note that Apple rests at the fourth spot in the overall PC market race, scoring only 10 percent behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell. However, the company enjoyed the most significant growth in the last quarter of 2024 and could see future development in the enterprise sector as well. "Apple finished strong in Q4 2024, significantly outgrowing the top three vendors and achieving a 10.2% market share in the total PC market and 45% share in the AI-capable PC market," added Jessop. "Apple's channel strategy continues to evolve as they announced the Apple Partner Network, launching later this year. This revamped program simplifies partner tiers and aims to take a share in the Enterprise segment while providing the necessary services to handle customers. The program highlights Mac's compatibility and scalability within the Enterprise environment, concerns which have previously kept them out of the segment." If you are unfamiliar with the breakdown of the entire market share, check out the list below for more details. Apple's market share growth indicates that its latest hardware upgrades and the introduction of the new Apple Intelligence features are heading the company in the right direction. Apart from hardware upgrades, Apple also dominates the AI-capable PC market with a 45 percent share against the 15 percent of the next competitor, which is only 15 percent. For the full year 2024, 17% of PCs shipped were AI-capable, with the biggest winners being Apple at 54% [sic?] share, followed by Lenovo and HP at 12% share each. While the research firm mentions 54 percent in the statement, the graph represents a 45 percent share. Canalys also mentions that AI capabilities will pick up pace in the future, where they will play a crucial role. Although AI capabilities are not a primary purchasing driver, improved AI processor performance will make personalized experiences and productivity gains increasingly important and expected. Over time, this could influence brand loyalty, shaping customers' decisions for future device upgrades. Canalys also reports that the overall PC market is going strong thanks to enterprise companies and their motive to upgrade older models with newer ones. This is because Microsoft has ended support for Windows 10, pushing companies to jump to the newer models with Windows 11 onboard. We will share more details on Apple's Mac market share as soon as further details are available.

Mac market share growing faster than top three PC brands; Apple leads in AI - 9to5Mac

A new market intelligence report indicates that Mac market share grew at a faster rate that the top three PC brands during the final quarter of last year. Apple also dominates the AI-capable computer market, with a 45% share against 15% for the nearest Windows PC competitor ... While Apple holds only a 10% share of the overall PC market, putting it in 4th place behind Lenovo, HP, and Dell, Canalys says it it enjoyed the largest growth in Q4 2024. The company also thinks it is well placed for future growth in the enterprise sector. "Apple finished strong in Q4 2024, significantly outgrowing the top three vendors and achieving a 10.2% market share in the total PC market and 45% share in the AI-capable PC market," added Jessop. "Apple's channel strategy continues to evolve as they announced the Apple Partner Network, launching later this year. This revamped program simplifies partner tiers and aims to take a share in the Enterprise segment while providing the necessary services to handle customers. The program highlights Mac's compatibility and scalability within the Enterprise environment, concerns which have previously kept them out of the segment." Canalys says Lenovo leads the overall PC market. When it comes to AI-capable PCs, defined as those with an AI-specific chip, Apple dominates. For the full year 2024, 17% of PCs shipped were AI-capable, with the biggest winners being Apple at 54% [sic?] share, followed by Lenovo and HP at 12% share each. Note: Canalys says 54% in this sentence but shows 45% in the graphic and says 45% elsewhere - we've reached out for clarification. The firm thinks AI capabilities aren't a big deal right now, but expects them to play an increasingly important role over time. Although AI capabilities are not a primary purchasing driver, improved AI processor performance will make personalized experiences and productivity gains increasingly important and expected. Over time, this could influence brand loyalty, shaping customers' decisions for future device upgrades. Canalys says that while the overall PC market is strong, largely driven by enterprise companies being forced to replace older models due to Microsoft ending support for Windows 10, Trump's 10% tariff on all imports from China is a threat.

Mac maintains a considerable lead in the AI PC market

While Windows AI PCs are slowly catching up, Mac still has a considerable lead in AI-capable PC shipments. The machine learning capabilities of Apple Silicon, including its Neural Engine, has been a massive help for Apple in capturing market share for its Mac lineup. Within the subcategory of AI-capable PCs, it's clearly dominating the field. In a February 25 report on AI-capable PCs from Canalys, the market for computers with AI capabilities is growing quickly. In Q4 2024, such computers account for 23% of overall PC shipments during the quarter. Across the entire year, AI-capable PCs made up 17% of the total market in 2024. Drilled down to manufacturer, Apple made up 45% of AI-capable PC shipments in Q4 2024. Apple Silicon also accounted for 10.2% of the total PC market, including non-AI hardware. On a full-year basis, Apple continued to keep a massive lead over its competitors. Across all of 2024, Apple secured a massive 54% of the AI-capable market, with Lenovo and HP in distant joint second place at 12% each, and Windows PCs occupying 46% overall. Over the course of the year, Windows-based AI PC shipments grew, while Apple's shipments seemingly maintained over the same period. This was apparently driven by continued momentum in commercial deployments later in the cycle for Windows systems. Moving onward, the Windows segment is expected to benefit from the deadline for the end of support for Windows 10. It is apparently emerging as "the primary refresh catalyst among partners," according to Canalys analyst Kieren Jessop. On the Mac side, Apple's legacy M-series models are seeing price reductions. Jessop adds that this is helping grow commercial share for Apple, including in emerging markets. The introduction of Apple Intelligence will also be helpful in the future, but seemingly not by that much. While AI capabilities aren't a primary purchasing driver, Jessop writes that improved AI processing performance will make personalized experiences and productivity gains more important. "Over time, this could influence brand loyalty, shaping customers' decisions for future device upgrades," he reasons. Apple's channel strategy is also going to evolve later in 2025 with the introduction of the Apple Partner Network. The revamped program simplified partner tiers in the Enterprise segment, while also highlighting compatibility and scalability, which should help bring in more corporate business.