On September 23, according to DIGITIMES, industry insiders revealed that compared with Wintel notebooks, Apple’s MacBook sales were relatively stable. With the new MacBook Pro lineup scheduled for the fourth quarter, Apple's notebook market share could hit a nearly five-year high in 2022.

The source pointed out that Wintel notebooks are actively clearing inventory, which is expected to last until the first half of 2023.

Wintel brand suppliers revealed that consumer buying sentiment in Europe, the US, China and Asia Pacific has slowed significantly, with some of them having up to 40-50 weeks of inventory. Therefore, these manufacturers can only promote products through promotions and lock in the back-end supply chain, thus causing the entire supply chain to enter the off-season.

The supply chain pointed out that brand manufacturers are facing a weaker-than-expected holiday season, and shipments in 2022-2023 should be viewed with caution. In addition, Intel and AMD executives also recently said that the PC market sales momentum is much lower than expected.

However, Apple's MacBook shipments have remained relatively stable, sources said. Supply chain analysis attributed this to the limited number of MacBook models, making it easier to control component inventories. On the other hand, Apple's June 2022 launch of the MacBook Air with the M2 processor has also been welcomed by the market and is less affected by inflation.

Apple is expected to launch a new MacBook Pro in the fourth quarter, which could spark another wave of sales that will not only limit the decline in its shipments in 2022, but also help increase Apple's market share, the sources said.

According to DIGITIMES Research, MacBook shipments will reach 22.18 million units in 2022, down 1.4% year-on-year. Among the top six notebook brands, Apple saw the smallest year-over-year decline, with HP, Dell and Lenovo all seeing double-digit declines. Affected by this, the market share of MacBook will break through double digits for the first time, reaching 10.8%, which is a new high in the past five years.