Apple Soars to Third Place in U.S. PC Market With 10.7% Share

Apple's still in the "others" category worldwide

TMar said:

3rd place from individual windows based PC makers. PC market share OS X vs Windows PC's 10.7% share to 89.3% share.

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Apple didn't even make it into the top 5 worldwide - it's lumped with "Others". HP's worldwide sales are nearly as large as the entire US market.

So, don't say 10.7% share without including "in the US".

Mak47 said:

All that said, who wouldn't want a computer that can run both OS's side by side? It's a great feature for those who need it.

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The people who want a system with options and expandability (you know, the mini-tower crowd) probably won't want a high-priced system with a low-priced graphics chip soldered to the motherboard (or mounted on an obscure daughtercard). Even laptop buyers may want more choices (like built-in 3G/4G cards and again, better graphics).

AidenShaw said:

Apple didn't even make it into the top 5 worldwide - it's lumped with "Others".

So, don't say 10.7% share without including "in the US".

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Not only that but from the worldwide chart it is clear that Apple's share is below 5.2%. Probably the same 4% that they always had.

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I'd prefer 4% to higher.

NAG said:

Thanks for proving my point that you have no evidence. Sorry that you made the unfortunate decision to buy Apple hardware to use as a Windows gaming machine. Kind of a waste of money there. Your post really only proves info about you and not the market at large.

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The 27" iMac is a great gaming platform.

In any event, in the financial sector or anyone involved in said sector, will by necessity have to run windows on a Mac in order to use it as there is practically no financial software for OS X. And the grand majority of proprietary financial software is design to run on Windows.

BTW, Windows runs very well on iMacs.

Also in the scientific, industrial and medical communities, Windows is basically a requirement.

Apple was smart to allow for Bootcamp. I for one am very glad as there's nothing in the AIO(all in one) market that comes quite close to an iMac.

As for evidence, if you work in any of these aforementioned fields, or know some who do, it would be self-evident that many of those converts have bought Mac hardware for its excellent build quality as well as for the fact that it can run Windows via Bootcamp or VM.

It's all about using the right tools for the job.

VitaminD said:

Also in the scientific

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Oh good then as a fellow scientist you should understand that you have provided no significant evidence at all.

Market share ain't fair

I have a personal quibble with Apple's market share.

PC users may have a bigger market share as global, where as Apple does market share from a U.S only standpoint, (which you might as well say), unless you live in the U.S, the market share won't concern you.

As a non-U.S resident, i do believe it but only for U.S, but to me, here in Australia, doesnn"t mean squat.. We all know there are more PC's out there. It seems Apple like to have like their own "mini" market share centralized to only local.

I bet you the market share outside U.S would be allot smaller

Tech198 said:

I have a personal quibble with Apple's market share.

PC users may have a bigger market share as global, where as Apple does market share from a U.S only standpoint, (which you might as well say), unless you live in the U.S, the market share won't concern you.

As a non-U.S resident, i do believe it but only for U.S, but to me, here in Australia, doesnn"t mean squat.. We all know there are more PC's out there. It seems Apple like to have like their own "mini" market share centralized to only local.

I bet you the market share outside U.S would be allot smaller

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I highly doubt that they are providing the same level of customer service outside the US and Europe.

NAG said:

Oh good then as a fellow scientist you should understand that you have provided no significant evidence at all.

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LOL. Shall I conduct a poll in each of those fields then? Or would it be good enough just to list the various software used in many of those fields that have no OS X equivalent and figure that if one in those fields buys or uses a Mac, that they do so to run Windows to one degree or another?

I work in the finance sector having a background in mathematics. In my experience, the converts in this sector, converted to Mac because it can run windows. I have two doctors in the family who share the same experience as well as my orthopedist. And so on an so forth.

In any event, the OP's post about Mac converts is really not one of those statements that require a mountain of evidence. Other than his claim being that "most converts to Mac run Windows on it." That would indeed require some verifiable supporting evidence.

But really, his general claim that there are converts who converted because a Mac can run Windows is not so extraordinary as to require "evidence" beyond anecdotal.

The good news is, as Macs become more popular, more developers will develop software for Mac's OS such that these sort of unnecessarily contentious debates that litter the internet will go the way of the dodo.

res1233 said:

It just keeps going up! The future sure looks interesting. I wonder what Microsoft would do if Mac OS's market share was ever on par with Windows? It looks like a real possibility in the future if this growth continues.

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If Apple sells about 950 million computers and nobody buys a Windows machine during that time, the market share will be even. How long do you think it will be before this happens?

So is the 10% include iPads? If it does than real market share is around 0.0001%

AppleScruff1 said:

If Apple sells about 950 million computers and nobody buys a Windows machine during that time, the market share will be even. How long do you think it will be before this happens?

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we'd all live to have the same dream too.

lifeinhd said:

Were tablets counted as "PC Shipments," or just actual PCs?

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I'm not sure that tablets are counted into this survey. In the past on this chart there were only Macs. If tablets were included, I'd expect a kink in the chart and not a steady progression. From what I have heard, the Mac is benefiting from the iPhone halo effect. With the introduction of iCloud and Lion OS the Mac market share could pick up more steam because it will be tightly synced to the iDevices.

It's a exciting time to be a Mac fan.

Tech198 said:

I bet you the market share outside U.S would be allot smaller

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Of course it is. Asia is rife with bootlegged Windows OS disks. Those bootlegged copies count toward market share for Windows, even though they don't bring a dime into Redmond.

As for sales of hardware boxes, Apple also would be much smaller in worldwide sales. Apple, in the past, didn't market worldwide as vigorously as they did in the U.S. so their presence has been lacking. They are now, however doing a much better job of worldwide marketing but that has been focused on iOS devices where they have real product differentiation strength.

Am I the only one who thought 10.7 meant Lion at first?

Samuriajackon said:

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Acer lost 22%!?!?

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Acer was probably the strongest seller in the netbook market, which is where their previous enormous growth came from. With iPad eating into that market, they could be expected to be the biggest loser.

And while overall sales numbers were down by 5.6%, if you count "everybody except Apple", they were actually down by 7.0%.

lilo777 said:

Most converts run Windows on their new Macs anyways. This chart shows market share of units (i.e. computers) not OS installations.

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The MBA is considered by many the best laptop for running Windows. So what exactly are you trying to say here? I know you want to imply something negative, because that's just you, but people recognise that Apple builds the best hardware for anyone who has taste and a bit of money. Nothing wrong with that. So what you are saying is that Apple's hardware is so good that Windows users pick it up in droves, even without any marketing on Apple's side. Surely no sane person can claim that Mac sales to Windows users are down to hype and marketing, as the Apple haters usually claim for all Apple sales, so it must be because they just love the product.

And the OS installations in all cases that I know were covered by company license. I myself can legally install Windows, or Microsoft Office, on my Mac for the price of the DVD (as long as I stay with the same employer). So this isn't exactly bringing money to Microsoft, and Apple gets paid for the MacOS X license anyway.

NAG said:

Oh good then as a fellow scientist you should understand that you have provided no significant evidence at all.

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VitaminD said:

LOL. Shall I conduct a poll in each of those fields then? Or would it be good enough just to list the various software used in many of those fields that have no OS X equivalent and figure that if one in those fields buys or uses a Mac, that they do so to run Windows to one degree or another?

I work in the finance sector having a background in mathematics. In my experience, the converts in this sector, converted to Mac because it can run windows. I have two doctors in the family who share the same experience as well as my orthopedist. And so on an so forth.

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And in my experience, the OS of choice tends to vary by field. I'm a statistician, so I really hate to go off of anecdotal evidence, but I don't really feel like getting funding for a study just to find out what kind of binaries and operating systems scientists in various fields use. However, I do work with scientists in many multiple fields. IME, all three primary operating systems (OS X, Windows, Linux) are represented very well.

Those who need the most computational power, such as physicists, tend to favor Linux. Biologists and chemists, who mostly send off their data to others (like myself) to analyze, often use Windows. In statistics (IME, again), it's mostly Linux and OS X. Because of the prevalence of *nix, anything OS X and Linux is compatible, while Windows is often left in the dust. When it comes to serious scientific computing, I invariably encounter Linux when it comes to the servers involved, which gives OS X a major advantage when it comes to the OS of choice for individual scientists. Those who are more frugal tend to go to Linux due to the scientific advantages, rather than Windows, which has almost only has advantages if their proprietary hardware requires it. Again, all IME.

All in all, I'd say anything *nix has a major advantage in scientific computing. Windows is certainly used, but only for the fields where computing isn't as important, and proprietary manufacturers of equipment (like mass spec machines) dictate the platform. Otherwise, it's a *nix OS, be it Linux, Solaris, or OS X.

To return to my own, completely unscientific biases, I have to add... since when was finance a science??!?!

AidenShaw said:

Apple didn't even make it into the top 5 worldwide - it's lumped with "Others". HP's worldwide sales are nearly as large as the entire US market.

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1. Apple's US sales are 1.814 million. Asus world wide sales are 4.467 million. So while Apple isn't in the top five, they are not far away from number five.

2. World wide sales grew by 2.3%. But interetingly, "Others" (which includes Apple) grew by 5.3%, while te top 6 (which don't include Apple) grew by 0.6% only.

It is a shame that Gartner doesn't publish world wide sales numbers for Apple, but it is quite clear that Apple is getting closer to the top in unit sales.

SandynJosh said:

I'm not sure that tablets are counted into this survey. In the past on this chart there were only Macs. If tablets were included, I'd expect a kink in the chart and not a steady progression.

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It is absolutely sure that iPads are not counted in these numbers, because Apple's iPad sales alone exceed the 4.467 million units number that is quoted for Asus.

And I found this gem in some other thread. Worth thinking about:

Now, how's that: Apple could buy Dell from Cash, instantly become the market share leader and would be less profitable than it is now...

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So many Americans being ripped off, build your own computer and if you care put OS X on it.

lilo777 said:

Most converts run Windows on their new Macs anyways. This chart shows market share of units (i.e. computers) not OS installations.

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Look, if you're going to blatantly make up stuff, at least make it interesting:

"Most converts only use their Airs as door stops"

"Most converts only use their Pros as boat anchors for the family yacht"

etc...

res1233 said:

It just keeps going up! The future sure looks interesting. I wonder what Microsoft would do if Mac OS's market share was ever on par with Windows? It looks like a real possibility in the future if this growth continues.

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I see the current tend leveling off at 20%. Stiff very impressive.

lilo777 said:

Frequency does not matter for Microsoft. The important part is that you bought Windows license.

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Actually, I didn't buy a new one. I used an old one from a POS Dell that I was getting rid of. But for the record, MS will never sell me another OS operating system license. The point to my original statement is that I am a geek, and Boot Camp was the carrot to get me to take the step of buying my first Mac. Now that I see a better world I'm never going back.

lilo777 said:

Maybe not for free 32GB RAM but how about switching to Windows for a reasonably priced computer WITH 32 GB RAM? (or a decent GPU )

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When you get to 32GB of RAM on a Windows machine you'll be buying server class hardware, and will have far surpassed the cost of a Mac, which would make your life soooo much better and easier. Not to mention you'll be unfortunate enough to be running Windows...

iPad?

so, the iPad is classified as a PC. so it's the iPad that has pushed apple into #3?

aleonell said:

so, the iPad is classified as a PC. so it's the iPad that has pushed apple into #3?

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The iPad is not in these figures. This is Macs only.

How am I suppose to be indi and cool if I'm supporting the leading mainstream brands and not the .5% underdog?

I'm going to have to go buy a Windows PC now. beige or ugly black boxes is the new aluminium.

NAG said:

Evidence to back this up?

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Its common sense. The people who can most afford a mac often work with windows specific software. If Macs couldn't run windows they would still be using a PC