Apple M2 MacBook Air sales likely to usher in bleak winter for Wintel laptop shipments

Apple’s latest MacBook Air offering is going to hurt Wintel laptop sales, according to an article from DigiTimes. With numerous comely selling points, such as the presence of the Apple M2 chip, a design overhaul, and the inclusion of a much-improved webcam (2022 MacBook Air: 1080p; 2020 MacBook Air: 720p), the upcoming 2022 MacBook Air should be a sales smash hit. If this ends up being the case, as it likely will, then it will be high-end Wintel-based consumer notebooks that have to bear the brunt of the market impact of the incoming M2 MacBook Air.

The MacBook Air with M2 chip is also priced aggressively, with the base configuration starting at US$1,199, and there are plenty of attractive upgrades available to those who are willing to spend a bit extra. Combining this with other negative sales-impacting factors for Wintel laptop producers, such as inflation and the general miserable state of the global economy as a whole, leaves rivals such as Lenovo and Dell facing larger shipment declines than Apple. In fact, the source opines that while Apple’s shipment figures will only drop by 2.1% over the year, the worst-affected Wintel competitor, Acer, will have to tackle a predicted 19.6% fall in laptop shipments.

There’s similar bleak reading for the rest of the major laptop brands mentioned: HP’s shipments are predicted to drop by 16.7%, Lenovo’s by 14.7%, Asustek’s by 8.6%, and even Dell is expected to see a decline in laptop shipments by a hefty 6.7%. The expected high sales figures of the 2022 MacBook Air should help Apple weather the economic storm and suffer the least damage out of the big six as long as Cupertino delivers what seems to be promised – a high-end laptop that offers generous generational performance gains over its predecessor without succumbing to thermal issues because of its restrictive form.

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