Skip to main content

Apple MacBook Air sales estimated at 1.1 million units in Q4 2010

With Apple already flying high off the launch of the iPad 2, a technology analyst says the company enjoyed better-than-expected sales of its MacBook Air line in the ultra-thin notebook’s first quarter, reports Apple Insider.

According to Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple shipped a total of 1.1 million units of its 11- and 13-inch MacBook airs during its first three months of sales, a period that ended in December. This would make the new MacBook Air line one of the most successful product launches in Apple history.

Recommended Videos

Put in context with Apple notebook sales in general, this is an even more impressive number. Apple says it sold a total of 2.9 million Mac-branded notebooks during the fourth quarter of 2010 — that includes sales of all MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. That means that MacBook Air sales made up a 40 percent of all Mac notebook sales for Apple during that timeframe. (Apple does not report sales of individual product lines for “competitive reasons.”)

During that same time period, Apple sold an estimated 7.3 million iPads and 16.24 million iPhones.

Kuo says that sales of MacBook Airs during the current quarter are down about 40 percent from its launch quarter. But he insists that Mac notebook sales are far from hurting, with Apple’s new line of MacBook Pros expected to pick up the slack from the sagging MacBook Air sales. Sales of the new MacBook Pros are expected to more than offset the drop in MacBook Air sales.

To top off Apple’s dominance in the PC market, Kuo estimates that Apple will sell as many as 4.5 million Mac systems during the first quarter of 2011. If so, that would most likely make Apple the only PC vendor in the world to report quarter-to-quarter growth.

Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
Apple silicon has made the MacBook Pro a consumer favorite
Someone using a MacBook Pro at a desk.

Apple’s computer lineup has greatly benefitted from its update to the M4 chip in 2024. The brand introduced the M4 MacBook Pro and iMac lines in the last year– and research has further indicated that Apple’s decision to shift from Intel processors to proprietary silicon was a solid move. It has made consumers favor Apple laptops more. 

According to statistics from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), MacBook form factors, in either MacBook Pro or MacBook Air made up 86% of Apple’s PC market share in 2024. Consumers especially favored the M4 MacBook Pro at a rate of 53%, while 33% of MacBook Air models shipped during the year, and 14% of iMac models. These figures vary only slightly from the year prior; however, CIRP noted that Apple appears to have weathered any fluctuations that may have occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Read more
MacBook Air 15 (M4) vs. Surface Laptop 7: the MacBook is just better
Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 front angled view showing display and keyboard.

If you want a large display but you don't want to carry around a heavy laptop, then the thin-and-light 15-inch laptop category is for you. These machines tend to be fast enough for demanding productivity users, but they don't have the discrete GPUs that make many larger laptops good for gaming and creative applications.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 has ruled the roost as the best example since it was introduced in 2024. The Apple MacBook Air 15 received an upgrade to the M4 chipset in early 2025, and it's a strong competitor. Which one is better for you?
Specs and configurations

Read more
Here’s how Apple’s first foldable MacBook might win me over
The Zenbook Fold 17 open on a table.

Rumors have persisted for years now that Apple is working on a touchscreen MacBook, but I’ve never been truly convinced. For one thing, I don’t see how a touchscreen could improve my MacBook experience enough to justify the inevitable price rise. This is Apple we’re talking about, after all, and there’s just no way that a touchscreen MacBook will possibly come cheap.

As well as that, I’ve long agreed with Steve Jobs’ belief that adding a touchscreen to a regular MacBook is an ergonomic nightmare. Constantly reaching up to the display is a quick way to exhaust your arms, and paining its users isn’t really part of Apple’s playbook. The Mac operating system isn’t designed for touch either, and in any case, adding a touchscreen would result in all manner of greasy fingerprints on your monitor. It’s never seemed like a good idea to me.

Read more