As more of us turn to our smartphones and tablets it’s a tough time for the makers of desktop and laptop PCs.
A new report from IDC and Gartner suggests 2017 was a torrid year for computer sales with many of the world’s biggest manufacturers struggling to sell their latest devices.
However, one company that appears to be shrugging off the problems is Apple with sales of its Macs actually up from the year before.
According to these new figures, sales of Macs were up almost six per cent on 2016.
HP and Dell also both saw their figures rise but Lenovo, Acer and ASUS all suffered with a decline of up to 10 per cent.
Apple hasn’t officially revealed its sales figures for 2017 although it is expected to announce full details at its investors call next month.
Total sales of Windows PCs still eclipse Apple’s share but, if these latest figures are correct, the US technology giant is still officially the world’s fourth largest PC maker.
Apple recently refreshed its Mac lineup with its new MacBook Pros offering more power and innovative new Touch Bar which changes depending of on the software being used.
The firm has also recently released its ultimate iMac Pro which is designed for professionals and boasts workstation-class performance.
With Xeon processors up to 18 cores and up to 22 Teraflops of graphics performance, Apple says the iMac Pro is the fastest, most powerful Mac it has ever built.
Apple Vice President of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus said: “iMac Pro combines the incredible design of the iMac with the most powerful workstation architecture we’ve ever built.
“iMac is the most popular desktop for our pro users due to its amazing display and elegant design, so we completely re-engineered it to deliver performance far beyond what anyone thought possible in an all-in-one.”
However, Apple won’t have it all its own way in 2018 with Acer already unveiling its Swift 7 laptop which is now the world’s thinnest portable PC.
The Windows 10 powered machine measures in at just 8.98mm thick but still manages to pack decent performance inside its unibody aluminium chassis.
The spec sheet includes a 7th Gen Intel CoreTM i7 processor 256 GB of onboard storage and 8 GB of RAM.
Acer also says there’s up to 10 hours of battery life and it features in-built XMM 4G LTE connectivity which means this laptop is always online.
The Swift 7 even ships with a Transatel profile provisioned with up to 1 GB of free data valid for one month in 48 countries to help users get started immediately, while additional data plans can be easily purchased as needed through the Mobile Plans application while travelling around the world.
Other nice features include a 14-inch Full HD display, fingerprint scanner for added security and a backlit keyboard.