Apple Maintains Third Place in U.S. PC Sales for 4Q 2012

[Member(TM)]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

Classic Mac OS had more viruses than OS X even though it had less market share.

It had less market share at its last years, but during most of its lifetime classic Mac OS had more market share than Mac OS X has today.

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by Member(TM)

It had less market share at its last years, but during most of its lifetime classic Mac OS had more market share than Mac OS X has today.

I don't think there really was a period in the 90s when such a statement holds true at all.

[G51989]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

I don't think there really was a period in the 90s when such a statement holds true at all.

Indeed, I think Apple's market share in the mid-late 90s was less than 3% if I recall correctly.

[Member(TM)]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

I don't think there really was a period in the 90s when such a statement holds true at all.

Unfortunately for those times I've only found figures for global market share, so I don't know exactly how what I said can be extended to US market share, which is what this thread is about and perhaps what interest you most. I also admit that I had underestimated the current global market share of Mac OS X, so the words I used, "most of its lifetime", should rather be "part of its lifetime".

But anyway, although most published statistics for 2012 are still preliminary, the estimated global market share of Mac computers for 2012 is about 5%. Maybe they just had a fabulous quarter that will prove this estimation wrong when Apple publishes its results, but for now I'm taking 5% as good. In the times of classic Mac OS, Macs had an annual market share bigger than that in eight occasions:

Mac global market share

1984: 6%
1987: 6%
1988: 6%
1991: 11.20%
1992: 12%
1993: 10%
1994: 9.30%
1995: 9%

2012: ~5% (provisional)

My main source for these numbers is Jeremy Reimer's "Total Share: Personal Computer Market Share". Concerning the reliability of those data, I just can say that they are the best I was able to find. He's been keeping those statistics for a number of years now, so I guess that if he had said something that departs essentially from what statistical researchers say someone would have raised an alarm.

About the matter of US market share throughout those years, I believe that the difference from global market share was not as pronounced as today, but I still think that at least during the period 1991-1995 Macs had bigger market share than now even in the United States. I would estimate about 18% Mac US market share for the year 1992, but I concede that this is a wild guess on my part. Please feel free to share if you find US PC market share reports on those years.

[Bantz]

Originally Posted by louis.b

overcharged how? Macbooks have the best trackpads, great clean sleek designs, durable and great quality. Apple also has great customer support in the sense that you dont have to send your laptop away for AT LEAST 2 weeks to fix it if anything's wrong.

If you're used to great things please dont comment about them.

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have to agree w this. Even when Im doing nothing I can still hear the slight buzz. Nothing major but I was expecting dead silence.

Apple quality has gone down a lot, all my old macs g4 tower, mac mini g4, performa 600 are all still going fine. I dont buy Apple products anymore but my friends are always having faults with their iphones and macbooks. Faulty dvd drives, hard disks and power supply problems seem to happen a lot.

[drblank]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

Looking around me now I see.... hum... about 50 HP laptops, including my own EliteBook 12" laptop. No Macs, no Dell, no Lenovo, no Acers.

Of course, I'm at work, and we switched back to HP as a provider from Dell 2 years ago.

Switched back to HP? What happens when HP ultimately drives the company into the ground, then what brand? Lenovo? Dell, again? Dell isn't doing too well.