A brand new report from CIRP (Shopper Intelligence Analysis Companions) makes an attempt to quantify how lengthy shoppers maintain on to their Macs earlier than shopping for a brand new mannequin. And its conclusion, which won’t make glad studying for Apple, is that the numbers are going up.
The examine requested US shoppers how previous their earlier Mac had been once they selected to exchange it. In 2024, greater than half (56 %) stated 3 years or extra. That’s a 16-point improve from the equal survey in 2020, when simply 40 % gave that reply.
Because the “3 years or extra” class elevated in measurement, all the opposite classes shrank. The variety of upgraders who maintain their Mac for 2-3 years has dropped from 19 to 13 %; those that maintain it for 1-2 years have dropped from 23 to 19 %; and the fortunate group who’re in a position to substitute their Mac yearly has dropped from 19 to 13 %.
The rationale shoppers are conserving their Macs longer, in line with CIRP, is that customers are shifting extra in direction of streaming and web-based apps, which implies there may be much less must bump up processing energy and due to this fact much less motivation to improve continuously. CIRP additionally highlights a report by Mark Gurman that cites fewer cutting-edge options in addition to elevated reliability and sturdiness as causes for the rising lifecycle of Apple units.
“Lately,” Gurman writes, “Apple’s tempo of {hardware} innovation has slowed… The present MacBook Professional has the identical fundamental type issue because it did in 2021, and I wouldn’t count on a brand new look till 2025 or 2026. The MacBook Air was redesigned in 2022, and a future change might be years away as nicely. The top outcome: Getting common shoppers to often improve to a brand new mannequin is tougher than it was once.”
A contemporary Mac laptop with an Apple M-series chip is powerful sufficient for many Mac customers to carry on to it for 3 years or extra. Even the primary machine with Apple’s M1 chip, the MacBook Air from 2020, nonetheless has sufficient bounce in its step for on a regular basis use akin to sending emails, shopping, easy photograph and video modifying.
In some methods, then, the report displays nicely on Apple’s Mac vary; however that can be scant comfort if revenues dry up from an absence of improve exercise. Let’s hope Cupertino has one thing thrilling in retailer for the M3 Mac Studio.
This text initially appeared on our sister publication Macworld Sweden and was translated and localized from Swedish.
