- PC shipments are up 8% in Q3 2025, helped by Windows 10’s End of Life
- Apple’s Macs have done particularly well with a 15% gain year-on-year
- Windows PC makers have also witnessed some robust increases, with one notable exception
It was always going to be the case that Windows 10 reaching its official end of support would drive people in other directions than where Microsoft wants them to go, i.e., Windows 11 – and that means not just Linux (which is often pushed as an alternative), but macOS.
MacRumors noticed that Apple‘s Macs have picked up a lot of sales due to Windows 10‘s End of Life, as shown by Counterpoint’s latest figures.
The analytics firm’s statistics for global PC shipments show a strong rise of 8.1% in Q3 2025 compared to the same quarter last year, which has been partly driven by the end of Windows 10 coming to pass (as well as “strategic inventory adjustments” due to US tariffs).
Apple has been one of the major beneficiaries of this, with Mac shipments up 14.9%, helped by some smart new MacBook models brought in this year, and businesses buying new laptops due to Windows 10 PCs being obsoleted.
Analysis: Windows 11 sales are no slouch either – with one major exception
Lest you think everyone is jumping ship to get on board with Apple Macs, other PC vendors have done well here too. Lenovo fared best, in fact, with a 17% gain in Q3 year-on-year, edging out Apple’s 15% boost, which was just ahead of Asus on 14%. HP also gained 10%, so all the big PC makers who push Windows 11 machines have done well in this last quarter, too – with one notable exception.
Dell struggled badly, with its PC shipments actually dropping by almost a full percentage point year on year, in marked contrast to all the other big players.
That’s an unusually strong rise for Apple, and Tim Cook will doubtless be pleased to see it, particularly given that Mac sales hit troubled waters last year, and indeed in Q3 of 2024 we saw Apple lose as much as it gained here. Apple has put all that in the rearview mirror, though, as Mac sales have only gone from strength to strength this year, culminating in this most recent uptick.
It’s the proponents of Linux who’ve really tried to capitalize on persuading Windows 10 defectors – those with older PCs that can’t run Windows 11 due to the steeper system requirements – so it’s interesting to see how much migration there has been towards Macs. There are also suggestions that Linux – or certain distros – are making hay while the Windows 10 End of Life sun sets, but thus far, these are limited hints.
The big picture being pushed by the analyst firm here, however, is the shift to AI PCs, which isn’t expected to fully kick off until 2027, Counterpoint believes – but what we’re seeing here are the early stages of businesses buying laptops capable of accelerating local AI tasks (on-device) via an NPU, which include Apple’s newer MacBooks and Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11.
Counterpoint highlights the incoming Intel Panther Lake processors, and also Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite, as powerful mobile CPUs that’ll help push Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs in these relatively early days of the AI ‘revolution’.
Notably, though, we’ve already caught a leak showing how Apple’s new M5 chip can outgun even the ‘Extreme’ version of the Snapdragon X2 Elite, at least in certain scenarios – which is promising for the MacBooks of the future. Apple is doing well when it comes to making each new generation of M series silicon more performant.
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