Mac sales are on the rise even as the PC market continues to shrink

While years of clever advertising on Apple’s part has led most people to see Macs and PCs as separate entities, the fact remains that Macs are technically PCs. Even so, there are still plenty of things that separate Macs from the rest of the PCs out there, such as an exclusive operating system and the fact that Macs don’t really seem to follow PC market trends. For example, while the PC market continues to shrink, Mac sales are rising by an impressive amount.

Continuing to buck trends, Mac sales rose 16.1 percent year-over-year in the June quarter even as the PC industry as a whole shrank 11.8 percent, according to new estimates published on Thursday by research firm IDC. Apple is believed to have sold just under 5.14 million computers, putting it in fourth place under leaders Lenovo, HP, and Dell. Those companies sold 13.44 million, 12.25 million, and 9.56 million units respectively. Below Apple were Acer and ASUS, both roughly at 4.33 million, with a slight edge given to Acer. In all, IDC estimates that some 66.14 million computers were shipped during the quarter, with Apple being the lone top-five vendor to post positive numbers. Apple is said to have dodged the price competition affecting other PC vendors, and benefitted from factors like the launch of the 12-inch Retina MacBook and a concentration of U.S. shipments. The company may also be riding on uncertainty around the launch of Windows 10, IDC remarked.