On paper everything was very beautiful. The Copilot+ PCs wanted to resurrect and reinvent the PC, turning it into a device with which to do much more with much less effort. There was a lot of talk about TOPS power, how AI would do a lot of things for us, and an argument that would boost sales. Do you know what?
Its impact has been practically zero.
For better or worse, the PC segment has not undergone major changes. Sales have not suddenly started to grow, nor have they plummeted. If the Copilot+ PCs wanted to boost sales, they certainly haven’t seemed to succeed. But at least they don’t seem to have had a negative impact either.
Own elaboration. Data: IDC
The arrival of AI functions on PCs should theoretically have had an impact on PC sales by boosting them, but also theoretically on Mac sales, from which it should have stolen some share if AI had been an important argument.
As we know, Apple has barely emphasized the AI functions of its equipment. Although it presented Apple Intelligence in June 2024, it did so in a very limited way and almost a year and a half later its functions remain modest.
Own elaboration. Data: Apple quarterly reports.
The people keep buying Macbut not because of Apple Intelligence, but because they are just that, Mac. This has been noted throughout this period in which sales have remained relatively stable.
The Mac is a lot of Mac
The recent presentation of the MacBook Pro M5 could encourage sales towards the end of the year, but where Apple seems to have a winning horse is in the MacBook Air M4, which has only been on the market for eight months and offers an enviable Price-performance ratio.
In the US, for example, you can get it right now for $800 (without taxes). Here, for 949 euros. Few Windows laptops can compete with Apple’s offering, which is surprisingly balanced and has extraordinary room for maneuver thanks to its Apple M4 chip.
When we tested the Acer Swift Go 14 AI, for example, we found a device that at 719 euros is undoubtedly cheaper and boasts 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD, but which is inferior in its chip, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus. In Geekbench single-core it is around 2,400 points, and in multi-core it is 10,500. The Apple M4 is around 3,600 and 15,000 points respectively.
Acer’s, like other manufacturers selling PC Copilot+, is on paper a comparatively decent proposal, but still fails to impose that TOPS argument and AI functions. They are there and can help, but they are not a decisive argument at the moment, at least if we look at the sales of these devices.
PC sales may be reactivated and boosted in the short term, but if they do so it will probably not be because of the AI functions, but for the simple reason that official support for Windows 10 has ended – although that has fine print – and many users and companies may have decided to renew their computer park.
However, the promise that AI was going to revolutionize our PCs remains just that: a promise. Apple seems like it can rest easy. And it must be, because this last quarter the Mac division has grown 13% in revenue compared to the same period of the previous year. Not bad.
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Imagen | Wesson Wang
