During the day yesterday the company Sony announced officially the plans to sell the division that produces PCs, but also the brand Vaio, all in an attempt to focus on manufacturing mobile terminals and making a profit. During this day those from LG followed their example and announced that they are considering the possibility of divesting the division that produces desktop computers, while still maintaining the divisions that produce standard laptops and laptops that have built-in touch screens.
And how profitable are Macs? Apple doesn't break out the figure for Mac profitability. But Horace Dediu of the Asymco consultancy reckons there's a good-enough rule of thumb: assume that Macs have an 18.9% profit margin, which fits well enough with its historical operating margins. That metric gives a hardware per-PC profit which has dropped from $241 to $232 – an erosion, certainly, but a margin that Windows PC makers would kill for: it's more than 10 times greater than their per-PC profit.
Both companies want to focus their efforts on the development of tablets and smartphones, which have been growing steadily for several years, a growth that seems to never stop. Although they seem radical and totally unexpected, the decisions of the two companies could be only the first, because the average profit of PC manufacturers fell to only $24 during 2013, but this figure does not apply to those from Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),, which recorded sustained sales in the last months, even having a healthy growth in Q4 2013.
Having a profit margin of 18.9% of the price of each MacThose from Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), they can earn up to 10 times more than a PC manufacturer, a function of the product they sell. Practically, Apple remains the only company that remains unaffected by the dramatic decrease in PC sales, but it remains to be seen if this trend will continue.
