Apple still rules back-to-school

Apple still rules back-to-school

During the back-to-school shopping period (July 4th through Labor Day week), Applesaw notebook sales rise 16% year over year as customers clamored for the latestMacBook Airs and MacBook Pros, according to research firm NPD Group. Even more impressive is how well sales of Apple notebooks did in the final three weeks of the period, rising 27% year over year. That growth allowed Apple to capture 26.8% of the unit device share.

Overall, Mac OS-based products rose 14% year over year, partially helped by the recent price cuts and refreshed MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks Apple has instituted in recent months.

Though Apple experienced incredible growth, Windows-based PCs and notebooks continued to reign supreme, owning 68.4% of the market. That’s down from 72.3% in 2013 and 75.2% in 2012, indicating that consumers just aren’t clamoring for Windows devices like they were, even 12 months ago.

Sales of Windows devices were aided by price cuts, which helped lift unit sales by 4%, but cut into how much the average selling price (ASP) of each device was, $441, down 8% from a year ago. Also helping Windows devices were 2-in-1 devices, including hybrid notebook/tablet devices, which saw a volume increase of six times 2013, accounting for 13% of all Windows devices.

Chromebook (laptops running Google’s Chrome operating system) sales continue to gain popularity in the back to school season, with sales up 32% year over year, accounting for 5% of notebook sales and 18% of all sales under $300.

Overall, notebook sales were up 3.4% in units year over year. Though many have said the tablet industry is doomed to surpass the PC industry in volume, it doesn’t appear to be happening just yet.