Apple's unified memory advantages are now manifesting in a spectacular fashion, and when combined with a shrewd strategy of eschewing price hikes, the Cupertino-based tech giant is all set to become the only major OEM in the notebook space to record a meaningful growth in shipments this year.
Apple's MacBook shipments to grow by 21.7 percent in 2026 even as global notebook sales are headed towards an year-over-year decline of 8 percent
According to the market intelligence firm Sigmaintell, global notebook shipments in 2026 will amount to 181.1 million units, which corresponds to an year-over-year decline of 8 percent, and precipitated almost entirely by the surge in global DRAM prices and the attendant demand destruction.
Interestingly, the firm estimates Apple will ship 28 million MacBook units this year, up a whopping 21.7 percent on an year-over-year basis. In fact, according to Sigmaintell, Apple is the only major OEM in the notebook space to clock meaningful growth this year.
Of course, this outcome is entirely by design, and leverages some of Apple's unique strengths. First, the Cupertino-based tech giant's unified memory architecture allows the CPU, GPU, and NPU to access data from a single high-bandwidth pool of memory, eliminating the need to repeatedly copy data, while significantly reducing latency and improving performance. What's more, the unified memory architecture also gives Apple the opportunity to truly leverage its heft to win attractive price quotes from memory vendors.
Second, Apple's macOS features a very aggressive memory compression algorithm that keeps the background RAM use in check. This means Apple's MacBooks can get by fairly efficiently with the onboard unified memory. Also, devices such as MacBook Neo can use a part of the SSD as virtual RAM when required.
Third, Apple has very shrewdly chosen to freeze the prices of its products at a time when nearly every other OEM is hiking prices. This has bestowed a nearly unassailable advantage to Apple.
In fact, Apple's overarching strategy of hoarding memory while freezing the prices of its products scored a home run just this week when Microsoft implemented a significant across-the-board price hike for its Surface laptops.
Following these price hikes, Apple's MacBooks have gained a significant strategic edge. Consider the fact that the 12-inch Surface Pro now starts at $1,049, while the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air from Apple starts at $999. For context, this base Surface variant previously retailed for just $799.
At the other end of the spectrum, the 15-inch Surface laptop with 64GB of RAM, the Snapdragon X Elite SoC, and a 1TB SSD now costs $3,649. For comparison, the 16-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro from Apple with equal RAM and SSD starts at $3,299.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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