How much do Macs matter to Apple?
The iPhone has far outstripped sales of Macs, but its rising tide has lifted Mac sales from millions to tens of millions of units per year, while preserving high profit margins. The biggest threat to Apple’s growth now is now saturation of the smartphone market, and Tim Cook sees China as a key market to expand into.
In 2015, Greater China (or China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) became Apple’s second-biggest “operating segment”, after the Americas. Revenue slipped back 30% during 2016, but Cook will be aiming to reverse that.
There’s potential for the Mac in China too. A 2011 AlphaWise poll by Morgan Stanley found Apple was seen in China as the most desirable PC brand. By the second quarter of 2015, Tim Cook disclosed that Mac unit sales in China had risen 32%, contributing to a 71% year-on-year rise in Greater China revenue.
So, Macs are far from an afterthought to Apple. China isn’t known for its creative industries, but President Xi Jinping has made noises about changing this. There must be room here to sell more high-end Macs, but the market for general-purpose MacBooks among China’s burgeoning executive class will be much larger.