What if Mac had a 90% market share

I don't think Apple's target is to have 90% market share. They aren't interested in sub-1000$ market which is the biggest market, thus they cannot provide computers to everyone. So many people aren't able to justify spending 999$ on a laptop, especially if you can get a similarly specced PC for a lot less. PCs are made by multiple companies and that's why there is competition. Macs are the only computers with OS X, thus the competition is very limited. If OS X was as open as Windows, then OS X might have 90% market share.

In the end, Macs aren't for everyone.

I don't think that's possible.

Apple's focus is not on quantity, but quality. There are many people who are unwilling or unable to spend the $$ on a Mac when a PC is much cheaper.

There's also preference, many people like windows and PCs

Then there's the enterprise; apple has largely ignored or failed to make any inroads in that sector.

Finally, apple is not really willing to invest a lot $$ trying to extend the mac platform. The money just isn't there, its a mature product without much prospect of making large profits.

There's currently no vendor in the PC space that has 90% market share. That would mean that everyone would have to pick Apple over Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Sony and all other vendors in that space. Even Apple doesn't have that much power and marketing alone won't make it.

If you want the Mac platform to have 90% market share, Apple would have to turn into a software vendor and kill off Microsoft, selling OS X to all the above mentionned vendors for inclusion in their product line-up. Since Apple's revenu is from hardware sales, you'd see how this could lead to their demise (just like how the Mac clone market almost did in the 90s).

In order to achieve that they would have to lower their prices dramatically and get corporate america to adopt OSX, both of which are not going to happen anytime soon.

asifnaz said:

It can be done .Apple has power to do that .The only problem I see that people don't have awareness about Apple and Mac world .I wish some advertisement is made .

Mac is doing so good even with low market share .


what could be the scenario of computing if Mac had 90% market share ...??

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Apple would be immediately investigated by governments worldwide for competition related issues.

Apple PCs are too expensive to reach 90% marketshare.

If Apple had 90% market this would MicroRumors and users here would (for the most part) be fanatical about Microsoft products.

Apple is the sole manufacturer of Mac computers. It would be impossible for them to supply enough stock for 90% of the PC marketplace.

Not possible. For a start, they would have to adopt Microsoft's business model. That would mean making OS X available for all computers, thus lowering the price dramatically on certain hardware models. The general public who care not for computers like low price and knowing they can do everything they want to. This usually means Facebook and Microsoft Office.

Why spend £1000 on a Mac to do that when you can do it just as well on a £200 PC? Obviously for the tech knowledgeable, it pays to have a decent computer in the long run, not to mention that the tech knowledgeable will want to do more on their computer than Facebook and Microsoft Office. The general public will simply buy from the cheapest supplier, especially since most companies offer a windows machine with Office and other software bundled with it.

It's doubtful Apple even wants 90% market share. Imagine the headaches with a customer base that big. Besides, they don't need that much; in the last ten years, they have turned the company into a multi-billion dollar powerhouse. They have all the money they need and are doing well.

While I agree, Apple isn't targeting 90%, they are the largest single manufacturer which gives them price advantages. They could make computers that are more inexpensive and dramatically increase their market share. They don't want 90% because it would take away from their cool factor, but I could see 40%. I think its coming.
What costs money is designing all these different chips and parts, iteration after iteration. Its conceivable that if they made the MacBook a very standardized product with few modifications they could bring down the price of the MacBook $100/yr and they would start eating up market share.

BigQid said:

While I agree, Apple isn't targeting 90%, they are the largest single manufacturer which gives them price advantages.

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They are ? Here I thought they were in something like fourth place with HP being the largest single manufacturer.

asifnaz said:

It can be done .Apple has power to do that .The only problem I see that people don't have awareness about Apple and Mac world .I wish some advertisement is made .

Mac is doing so good even with low market share .


what could be the scenario of computing if Mac had 90% market share ...??

Click to expand...

1. Your punctuation is strange. I don't know if you care, but people will draw conclusions from how you write. (Dot then space, not space then dot).

2. Apple does plenty of advertisements.

3. Apple doesn't try to maximise their market share, they try to maximise profit. They are not selling to all those people who want the cheapest computer possible. That alone means 90% market share is just impossible.

4. At 90% market share, Apple would have incredible market power. You may think that is a good thing, but once you have market power, lots of things suddenly become illegal that would otherwise be legal. For example, Apple doesn't allow Dell to sell their computers with MacOS X installed, which is absolutely legal for Apple to do. With 90% market share, that and many, many other things would be illegal.

5. And all the other companies won't just roll over and die.

scenario where this could happen:

when jobs dies, apple will license out OS X to everyone and their mother.

I thought they were the largest single manufacturer. I don't remember where I heard that tidbit, but it was wrong. I stand corrected. I do stand by the idea though that as they grow, they will be able to push down prices.

BigQid said:

I thought they were the largest single manufacturer. I don't remember where I heard that tidbit, but it was wrong. I stand corrected. I do stand by the idea though that as they grow, they will be able to push down prices.

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I believe they are the largest single manufacturer of $1000+ notebooks.

A 90% marketshare... ah, to dream...

I think there would be a global recession far bigger than what we're seeing now. Think of all those out of work Windows support people!

When I worked for a major university/hospital complex, we had about a 50/50 split on Windows and Mac users. There were 22 Windows support people and 3 Mac support people, including myself. We ended up helping with all the overflow Windows issues!

Doc750 said:

scenario where this could happen:

when jobs dies, apple will license out OS X to everyone and their mother.

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Could happen soon... He looks in worse shape very keynote he does.

I think the reason Jobs and co. are heavily marketing the iPad/iPhone/iPod is that these are their areas of competitive advantage. Whilst the Macbooks and iMacs are capable computers, the iPad/iPhone/iPod must accrue most of the revenue, and hence are their most successful business units.

Macs have always had a smaller share of the personal computer market. This is ever since IBM mass produced and marketed the earliest PCs. There are just too many entry barriers to overcome, for Macs to out perform PCs. I think the fact that anybody can literally walk into a computer store, buy a set of components and a Windows OS disk, and build a PC from scratch goes against Apple.

Doc750 said:

scenario where this could happen:

when jobs dies, apple will license out OS X to everyone and their mother.

Click to expand...

Why should they? They are making money with the hardware, not the OS.

Don't really care about their marketshare, and neither does Apple.

All they care about is their revenue. And they seem to be doing, well, OK in that regard. You know, couple billion here, couple billion there. Nothing too much.

Apple seeks the high-profit margin products, not simply selling more of a cheaper product. They back it up with superior customer service and good quality.

Relative lack of legacy support I think is good. it bodes well for future development and allows all new products to stay fast and well-designed.

I think the Apple stores are crowded enough as it is ... imagine trying to get to the Genius bar in that scenario?