Apple yesterday said it sold 5.3 million Macs in the December quarter, a 3% decline from the same period the year before.

The year-over-year downturn in Mac sales was the first since the third quarter of 2013, and only the fourth overall since 2007. But it was a decline nonetheless, a drop of about 200,000 systems.

Even so, Apple was able to keep the Mac sales fall-off smaller than that of the PC industry overall. IDC recently estimated the business as down 11% for the December quarter, while rival Gartner tapped the contraction at 8%. Global personal computer shipments have contracted for four full years, according to both IDC and Gartner. During that same stretch, Mac sales declined in four of the 16 quarters.

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