Apple grew faster than the PC market last quarter, and you felt it. Global demand climbed, and MacBook sales moved with purpose. The headline number is strong. Mac shipments rose nearly 15 percent in Q3.
Counterpoint Research reports that global PC shipments grew 8.1 percent year over year, lifted by the Windows 10 end-of-support deadline and inventory moves tied to U.S. tariff policies. The firm frames this as a replacement cycle that pushes both companies and households to refresh aging hardware before support ends.
With about four in ten PCs still on Windows 10, the timer finally rang. You saw upgrade prompts, and IT teams planned bulk orders. Microsoft ended Windows 10 support on October 14, 2025, which turned a long countdown into immediate action.
Apple’s numbers and the leaderboard
Apple’s shipments jumped 14.9 percent, helped by popular new MacBook models and steadier enterprise adoption. That pace outstripped the broader market and put Apple near the top of the growth chart. Lenovo led with roughly 17 percent growth, Asus landed around 14 percent, and Dell slipped about 1 percent. Together, the biggest vendors grabbed nearly three-quarters of the market as smaller brands lost ground.
Counterpoint’s Minsoo Kang says the growth you see now comes mostly from operating-system migration, not a true AI PC wave. The firm expects the next phase to build as new AI chipsets arrive and software catches up, with the steeper curve showing after today’s Windows-driven surge. That future does not fully appear in the Q3 numbers yet, which keeps room for upside next year.
If you stayed on older Macs through the lull, the market just validated upgrading. If you have already moved, the next leap arrives when AI-focused hardware and apps finally align.
