1. Computing

Dell and Apple are the big winners in second-quarter notebook sales

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Apple recorded very strong notebook sales figures in the second quarter of 2017, thanks in no small part to the release of its revised 12-inch MacBook. The company shipped an estimated 3.98 million units between April and June, which makes for an increase of 17.1 percent over the previous quarter.

In terms of global notebook shipments, Apple now sits in fifth place, just behind Asus — and the company is certainly gaining ground. In the first quarter of 2017, Asus recorded a 9.7-percent market share while Apple could only muster 9 percent, but these results put both companies almost on a par with 10 percent each.

Apple is poised to record another significant increase when shipment results from the third quarter are announced, according to analysis from TrendForce. A focus on the MacBook Pro line will likely allow the company to once again up its total shipments by a double-digit percentage, which could enable it to outpace Asus.

At WWDC in June 2017, Apple announced plans to refresh its MacBook Pro laptops, alongside a $200 price cut to the entry-level version of the system. Since these developments only took effect deep into the second quarter, we won’t fully see the results until the next time hardware sales figures are posted.

Dell managed to outdo both Apple and Asus to comfortably take third place in the rankings. It recorded the best quarter-on-quarter improvement out of any of the top six notebook manufacturers, with an increase of 21.3 percent, according to a report from MacRumors.

Global notebook shipments in the second quarter increased by 5.7 percent over the first quarter, representing an increase of 3.6 percent over the same time span in 2016. Sales totaled 39.96 million units, with new product lines and particularly strong sales in the U.S. being cited as two of the reasons that sales figures are on an upward incline.

These sales figures don’t offer up good news for all parties, though. Acer made a big play for the Chromebook market in 2017, but based on the numbers, the effort is not necessarily paying off in the way the company might have hoped. Its market share dropped from 8.8 percent to 8 percent, and it shipped 3.5 percent less notebooks than the previous quarter to boot.

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