Is the iPhone the only one that Apple values? Is the decline in MacBook sales due to lack of attention from Apple?

Due to the weak economic situation and the popularity of tablet entertainment devices such as iPad, the PC market continued to decline in 2016. According to data from Gartner and IDC, global PC shipments fell 4.5% in the second quarter to 62.4 million units, with Apple and Lenovo being the most affected.

At WWDC this year, Cook was overjoyed to point out that despite the continued sluggish global PC market last year, Mac sales rose against the trend, expressing optimism about the future of Mac. Then in the second quarter of this year, Mac's market share dropped from 7.4% to 7.1%, and shipments fell 8.4% year-on-year.

As the "eldest son" of Apple, Mac has taken a big bite of the PC market while being suppressed by Windows. Although the market share is not high, the high price ensures that the Mac product line has always brought considerable profits to Apple. Although its position was later taken away by Apple's "youngest son" iPhone, Mac has always been the preferred device for fashionable people and high-end people due to its close integration with iOS, smooth operating experience and perfect industrial design. But why is Mac suddenly no longer favored by consumers?

Product line updates lack innovation and sincerity

When Steve Jobs, the soul of Apple, was alive, he made drastic reforms to the Mac product line almost every year and continued to improve the Mac product range. The iMac for office use, the MacBook Pro for mobile office use, and the extremely light and thin MacBook Air were all eye-catching products.

After Jobs passed away, Mac underwent a large-scale upgrade in 2012. The screen evolved to Retina level, the uncommon optical drive was eliminated, and the thickness was greatly reduced. Although the Retina version of Mac had problems such as heating and lag after it was withdrawn, this change was still in line with the trend of computer evolution and was sought after by consumers.

However, this change was criticized by senior Apple fans as over-catering to consumers and lacking real innovation. After that, the Mac product line was almost only upgraded with some parameters and configurations every year, and there were no substantial changes.

The only new model is the New MacBook released last year. The design of the 12-inch Retina screen and the fanless Core M processor was highly anticipated by users. However, it turned out that the Core M not only had serious heat generation and poor performance, but was even inferior to the iPad pro. The single Type-C interface also caused great trouble to users, and a multi-functional Hub basically became an indispensable accessory. In addition, the cancellation of the "Faith Lamp" was also collectively complained by Apple fans.

OS X: A double whammy

Mac OS X is a Unix-based operating system for Mac computers launched by Apple in 2001. OS X has always been an important reason for users to choose Mac. Unlike Windows, which freezes, blue screens, and crashes from time to time, OS X is stable, smooth, beautiful, and has gorgeous dynamic effects. In 2013, starting with OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple announced that the system would no longer be charged, ushering in the era of free desktop operating systems.

But in fact, OS X is also an important reason why many users do not choose Mac. This is because the high popularity of Windows makes users more familiar with the Windows system, while it takes a higher learning cost to get in touch with Mac. In addition, Windows software is more abundant, and many important software do not have OS X versions, which makes many consumers who are interested in Mac stay away.

In addition, the files generated by Apple's office software Pages, Keynote, and Numbers are not perfectly compatible with Windows Office, which makes it impractical to buy a Mac for office work. There are even fewer games on OS X. Although the Steam platform has also launched a Mac version, after testing, it is found that OS X is not well optimized for games. The same machine with Windows installed will have a higher quality when running the same game.

These reasons force users to choose to install a dual Windows system or a virtual machine after purchasing a Mac, but issues such as the file system between the two systems continue to bother users.

The rise of competitors

In 2012, Microsoft launched the Surface series of products to compete with the iPad tablet, and even added a more touch-friendly Metro interface to the Windows 8 system. Although the "weird" Surface RT was proven to be a failed product by the market, the Surface Pro series with full Windows desktop system functions has become increasingly popular among consumers after several iterations.

Surface Pro4 not only beats iPad Pro with mobile apps in office applications, but also has a huge entertainment library based on Windows, which is far ahead of Mac and iPad products.

If Surface Pro is a tablet in the form of a notebook, then the high-tech Surface Book released by Microsoft last October is a notebook in the form of a tablet. Not only does Surface Book outperform MacBook in performance, but its industrial design is also a vivid lesson for OEM manufacturers. The gorgeous hinge design also has the snap-on function of the tablet and keyboard, and the hot-swappable graphics card built into the keyboard is a stroke of genius.

Difficulties are temporary, and there is still hope for the future

In summary, Apple's Mac is currently facing internal and external problems and is at a critical juncture of life and death. The decline in sales of Mac, iPad and iPhone shows that Apple also has internal problems that cannot be ignored.

Apple's attempt to narrow the gap between the software of the three platforms is certainly correct, but perhaps breaking down the hardware barriers of the three platforms is the inevitable trend of the industry in the future. The performance of iPhone6s and iPad Pro is already strong enough, and 3D touch has added a new operating dimension to the touch screen. The hardware foundation for desktop systems to log in to mobile devices seems to have been laid. Although Windows Phone failed, the continuum function of connecting a mobile phone to a display device to become a PC has been unanimously recognized by users, which also shows the feasibility of this concept.

Although the current mobile phone market is highly competitive, the tablet market has insufficient demand, and the PC market continues to shrink, Apple, as the only company with a huge voice and its own platform manufacturer in all three markets, still has a bright future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.