Apple is aware that their sales have been on the decline and the latest numbers may be a wake-up call for them. The Cupertino company finds itself at fifth spot as it falls a bit behind rival PC vendor Asus.
The latest figures come from market research group IDC showing Apple dropping from 4.8 million to 4.4 million comparing its second quarter performance this year with that of 2015. This relegated Apple to fifth spot with a 7.4% market share until the second quarter per Mac Rumors.
The reasons for the decline could be due to a lot of reasons. It could be a result of new products coming from their competitors and the other tied up to the expected release of the MacBook Pro 2016.
It has been almost 400 days since Apple refreshed its MacBook Pro so an imminent fresh device is expected soon. The rumor mill has been filled with promising new features for the next MacBook Pro which will reportedly come in 13-inch and 15-inch thinner variants than its predecessor.
Release date happening between September to December
Apple has yet to reveal an official date of release though prior occurrences suggest that it may happen between September to December. In a previous post, it was mentioned how retail outlets were cleaning up their inventories of old MacBooks.
Based on tradition, this normally indicates that a new device is arriving soon and the belief is that it will be the MacBook Pro 2016. Readers can view that post here.
Among the rumored features per CNet of the MacBook Pro 2016 include using the latest Intel Skylake processors, Thunderbolt 3 with USB-C, possibly sporting 400-series Polaris graphics ships and that much talked about OLED touch bar which will replace the old function keys. It will debut with Apple's latest MacOS Sierra operating system.
It should be noted as well that the overall PC sales had an estimated 62.4 million in the second quarter which is a year-over decline of 4.5%. Though that could somehow explain the sagging performance of Apple, the MacBook Pro 2016 could turn things around.
