Apple was surprised by AI-driven demand for Macs
Apple was surprised by AI-driven demand for Macs
苹果对 AI 驱动的 Mac 需求感到意外
Apple’s iPhone sales and Services revenue were the stars of the show in the tech giant’s most recent quarter, but the Mac quietly outperformed — helped by growing demand for AI workloads. 在苹果公司最近一个季度的财报中，iPhone 销量和服务收入无疑是全场的焦点，但 Mac 业务却在 AI 工作负载需求增长的推动下，悄然实现了超预期表现。
Wall Street investors had expected to see Mac revenue in the low $8 billion range, but Apple reported $8.4 billion in the second quarter ended March 28 — a notable beat for a non-core segment of the tech giant’s business. In addition, investors ahead of earnings believed that Mac sales would be essentially flat year-over-year. Instead, Mac sales were up 6% on an annual basis, the company told investors. The company’s total revenue was $111.2 billion, a 17% increase from the same period last year. 华尔街投资者此前预计 Mac 的营收将在 80 亿美元出头，但苹果在截至 3 月 28 日的第二财季中报告了 84 亿美元的营收——对于这家科技巨头的非核心业务部门来说，这是一个显著的超预期表现。此外，投资者在财报发布前认为 Mac 的销量将与去年基本持平。然而，苹果告诉投资者，Mac 销量同比增长了 6%。公司总营收为 1112 亿美元，较去年同期增长 17%。
Apple chalked up some of the Mac growth to recent product launches, including the well-received MacBook Neo. However, those fun, colorful computers were only on sale for a few weeks after the March 4th pre-orders began. Realistically, most units shipped mid-to-late March, and some demand may have been pushed into April as certain models sold out. 苹果将部分 Mac 增长归功于近期发布的产品，包括广受好评的 MacBook Neo。然而，这些色彩鲜艳、充满趣味的电脑在 3 月 4 日开启预购后仅发售了几周。实际上，大多数产品是在 3 月中下旬才发货的，由于部分型号售罄，一些需求可能被推迟到了 4 月。
Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts on the company’s Q2 earnings call on Thursday that customer demand for the Neo was “off the charts” and higher than Apple had expected. He also noted that Apple set a record in the quarter for customers new to the Mac, partly due to the Neo. 苹果首席执行官蒂姆·库克在周四的第二季度财报电话会议上告诉分析师，客户对 Neo 的需求“高得离谱”，超出了苹果的预期。他还指出，本季度苹果迎来了创纪录的 Mac 新用户，部分原因正是得益于 Neo。
Cook attributed the Mac sales growth to the use of the platform for running local AI models, like OpenClaw — something that took Apple somewhat by surprise as Mac Mini and Mac Studio devices sold out in recent weeks. “Both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools, and the customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted, and so we saw higher than expected demand,” Cook said of these Mac sales. 库克将 Mac 的销量增长归因于该平台在运行本地 AI 模型（如 OpenClaw）方面的应用——这让苹果感到有些意外，因为 Mac Mini 和 Mac Studio 设备在最近几周已经售罄。库克在谈到这些 Mac 销量时表示：“这两款设备都是 AI 和智能代理工具的绝佳平台，客户对此的认可速度比我们预期的要快，因此我们看到了高于预期的需求。”
He also noted that the Mac Mini was top-selling desktop in China — a market that’s been in an OpenClaw frenzy as of late. Still, Mac revenue was flat on a quarter-over-quarter basis, suggesting this new demand has yet to scale. Cook said it may take Apple “several months” to reach supply-demand balance on the Mac Mini and Studio models. 他还提到，Mac Mini 是中国市场最畅销的台式机——该市场近期正处于 OpenClaw 的狂热之中。不过，Mac 的营收环比持平，这表明这种新需求尚未形成规模。库克表示，苹果可能需要“几个月”的时间才能使 Mac Mini 和 Studio 型号的供需达到平衡。
“We’re not at the point where we’re saying this [constraint] is going to end anytime soon. And it’s not because of a problem, per se, other than we just under-called the demand,” Cook explained. “我们目前还无法断言这种（供应）限制会很快结束。这本身并不是因为出现了什么问题，仅仅是因为我们低估了需求，”库克解释道。
Enterprise demand for the Mac was also at play. Apple pointed to a couple of larger companies, including Perplexity, that had turned to Mac as their preferred platform for building enterprise-grade AI assistants. He also said Apple was “supply constrained on the MacBook Neo,” and has even seen school systems, like Kansas City Public Schools, dropping Chromebooks for the Neo. 企业对 Mac 的需求也在发挥作用。苹果指出，包括 Perplexity 在内的几家大型公司已将 Mac 作为构建企业级 AI 助手的首选平台。他还表示，苹果在 MacBook Neo 上面临“供应限制”，甚至看到像堪萨斯城公立学校这样的教育系统也开始放弃 Chromebook，转而使用 Neo。