Once again, IDC and Gartner were both quite wrong in estimating Apple’s Q4 Mac shipments

“Two research groups that estimate global PC shipments not only served up incorrect data as fact, but also used the bogus figures to reach entirely false conclusions about Apple’s Macs in the global PC market,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for Roughly Drafted. “This isn’t the first time they’ve been so wrong but outlines the lack of accuracy from third-party “sales estimates” as Apple prepares to stop reporting its official sales numbers altogether.”
“The reality is that among the manufacturers they report sales from, none apart from Apple publish verifiable data on their actual shipments. And now that Apple has reported its Mac shipments, it’s clear that estimates from Gartner and IDC do not deserve solid confidence,” Dilger writes. “Garner reported that Apple had sold 4.928 million Macs in calendar Q3, while IDC issued a parallel report that credited Apple with sales of 4.762 million. That’s a difference between the two of 166 thousand Macs, something that should have already raised eyebrows. But Apple’s actual sales for the quarter were officially reported as 5.3 million. That means third-party ‘estimates’ were off by as much as a double-digit percentage.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: God only knows how bad Gartner and IDC’s PC numbers are, since many of those vendors never report unit share numbers at all.
This shows the folly of estimating unit shipments, yet again.
Of course, with Apple ceasing to provide real unit sales figures, these third-party outfits will never be fact-checked and their wild estimates will be treated as gospel by certain media outlets and pundits especially if and when they concoct bad numbers for Apple products.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s exposes IDC’s and Gartner’s flawed Mac unit sales estimates – November 3, 2017
Apple wants U.S. Supreme Court to undo previous decision regarding an antitrust suit – October 31, 2018
U.S. Supreme Court will decide if Apple’s App Store is an anti-competitive monopoly – June 19, 2018
U.S. Supreme Court to consider Apple appeal in antitrust suit over App Store prices – June 18, 2018
US DOJ sides with Apple over App Store antitrust allegations in Supreme Court brief – May 10, 2018
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revives antitrust lawsuit against Apple – January 13, 2017
Apple App Store antitrust complaint dismissed on procedural grounds by U.S. judge – August 16, 2013