Apple was the only major PC vendor to post significant shipment growth in Q2 2026, expanding Mac sales by 10.1% year-over-year while the global PC market contracted 4.9% to 68.2 million units. The company now holds 9.9% market share, up from 8.5% a year ago, as competitors Lenovo, HP, Dell, and ASUS all reported declines during an industry-wide downturn driven by a persistent memory shortage and rising component costs.
The divergence is stark. Lenovo held its top spot with 24.4% share despite a 2.1% shipment decline. HP held second place with 19.1% share and a 9% drop. Dell remained third with 13.6% share and a 5% decline. ASUS rounded out the top five with 7.4% share and barely moved, down 0.2%. Apple shipped roughly 6.7 million Macs in Q2 2026 based on its reported share and market totals, and gained 9.9% market share.
Apple’s gains are directly tied to the MacBook Neo, launched in March 2026 at $599. The laptop pairs an A18 Pro chip with 8GB of memory and targets the sub-$700 notebook segment, a tier that accounts for approximately 75 million units annually, nearly 40% of all notebook volume and historically dominated by Windows and ChromeOS devices. The MacBook Neo shipped 1.1 million units in Q1 alone, despite being on sale for only three weeks, marking one of the strongest Mac launch performances in recent memory.
Supply could not keep pace with demand. During Apple’s April 2026 earnings call, the company cited Mac sales as “impacted by supply constraints driven by higher than expected levels of demand.” The MacBook Neo sold out, with shipping times stretching to several weeks. That momentum carried into Q2 and helped offset the broader market contraction.
Apple raised prices on all Macs in June 2026, pushing the MacBook Neo’s starting price from $599 to $699 (though students still qualify for the lower price). The timing coincided with industry-wide cost pressures stemming from a global memory shortage that has driven up component costs across the board. Yet raising prices while gaining market share is unusual in a declining market. IDC forecasts average selling price growth of 17% for the entire PC industry in 2026, yet most competitors are losing share even as they pass costs to consumers.
The memory shortage appears asymmetric in Apple’s favor. Competitors with weaker supply chain negotiating power are struggling to absorb costs or maintain inventory. Apple’s vertical integration and component relationships have given it better access to memory capacity, allowing the company to grow shipments precisely when rivals cannot. IDC warned that “the biggest PC makers [are] gaining even more share as smaller rivals struggle with the memory crunch,” and Apple’s performance fits that pattern.
The path ahead darkens as IDC forecasts an 11.3% decline in global PC shipments for all of 2026, with Q4 expected to fall 20% year-over-year. The memory shortage is not expected to ease meaningfully until early 2028. IDC also noted that sustained pricing pressure could begin to weigh on upgrade cycles, “even as interest in on-device AI processing continues to grow”, a sign that even AI-powered features may not sustain demand if component costs keep rising.
Q2 2026 marked the first year-over-year decline in PC shipments since 2024, though units were still slightly above Q2 2024 levels. This is a market in stasis, not collapse, but the trajectory is downward and Q3 and Q4 will test whether Apple’s Q2 gains were launch-driven momentum or the beginning of sustained share consolidation. For now, the MacBook Neo and Apple’s supply chain advantage have given the company a rare competitive edge in a shrinking industry, but that edge will matter far less if the overall market continues to contract at the rate IDC is forecasting.
