Apple has reported stronger-than-expected Mac sales, fueled in part by rising demand for artificial intelligence workloads.
While iPhone and services revenue remained the company’s primary drivers, Mac revenue reached $8.4 billion in the quarter ending March 28, surpassing analyst expectations and marking a 6% year-over-year increase.

The growth comes as a surprise to both investors and company executives, who had projected relatively flat performance for the Mac segment.
Apple’s total revenue climbed to $111.2 billion during the period, representing a 17% increase compared to the previous year.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook attributed part of the surge to the launch of the MacBook Neo, a newly introduced product that quickly gained traction among consumers.

However, Cook emphasized that demand extended beyond new hardware, pointing to a growing interest in using Mac devices for local AI model processing.

Devices such as the Mac mini and Mac Studio experienced supply shortages as customers increasingly adopted them for AI and “agentic” computing tasks.

Cook noted that this demand developed faster than anticipated, leaving Apple struggling to keep pace with orders and warning that supply constraints could persist for several months.

Enterprise adoption also contributed to the momentum, with companies like Perplexity reportedly choosing Mac systems as their preferred platform for building AI-driven tools.

In some cases, institutions have begun replacing traditional alternatives with Apple devices, signaling a shift in enterprise computing preferences.
Despite the gains, Apple acknowledged that Mac sales remained flat on a quarter-to-quarter basis, suggesting the AI-driven demand surge is still in its early stages.

Nonetheless, the unexpected performance highlights how artificial intelligence is reshaping hardware demand across the technology sector.

Source: TechCrunch