Apple Grabs Record US PC Market Share On Strong Mac Sales in Q3 2014

[Tough Guy]

Yes, but it's not what Apple wants to do.

These lists count how many computers are sold. Whether the computer is £200 or £2,000 doesn't make a difference, it's one computer. The new Retina iMac starts at £1,999 ($2,499). Apple isn't going to sell gazillions of them. But someone else selling £200 computers must sell ten for every Retina iMac to make the same revenue.

Apple could easily build cheaper computers and sell lots of them. So what good would that do them? None at all.

The benefits of bringing more people into their ecosystem are obvious. Taking over education and corporate would be nice too.

And you're going to have to try REAL hard to convince me they could "easily" build a cheaper computer than the new entry-level Mac Mini. That thing is a total piece of junk. Truly one of the lousiest computers released in 2014. They cut so many damn corners with that thing, I don't know where else they could begin to cut? 2GB of ram maybe? Other than that, I don't see how they could make it any cheaper or crappier than it already is.

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Who cares about market share?

Pretty much everyone.

Only stock holders give two ***** about EBIT, profit-per-unit or other accounting metrics.

 

[Monique1]

We are a post-production facility. We have about 20 Dells, and one 2008 Mac for some technical work, bought two years before. Ask me how many of the 2010 Dells are still working? Six. The Mac's still chugging along.

I used to go through a Dell every 9 months. My kids got maybe a year out of theirs. One of them will graduate this year with the same 4 year old macbook pro. Mine's going on 4 years as well. We've got a few Lenovo's at my office still going strong since 2010 but even those aren't made like that anymore.

In short, the OSX growth in the enterprise market isn't surprising. Particularly when bundled with the iDevices one-time adolescents have grown with.

The Surface Pro 3 is a nice machine (It really is). I just can't use windows anymore.

 

[Glassed Silver]

TL;DR- Steve Jobs was the best, they're going downhill since he was gone.

They hit record Mac market share in a year that they didn't announce any big Mac updates and sold 10 million iPhones in 1 weekend. I think they're doing ok.

Way to miss the point completely, but what do you expect from a tl;dr guy.
At least you found cmd+F on your keyboard to look for the keyword you were hoping for.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[dannyyankou]

Way to miss the point completely, but what do you expect from a tl;dr guy.
At least you found cmd+F on your keyboard to look for the keyword you were hoping for.

Glassed Silver:mac

I do get the point. You're saying Steve strove towards perfection, and the current Apple doesn't do that.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Post PC era my ass...

It IS is post PC era. Macbooks are post PC devices (at least Jobs publicly said so at keynotes).

 

[tripmusic]

Whoa, wait... does this mean there's hope for the Mac after all??

 

[Keirasplace]

I want to know what is Apple's US retail market share.
Where can I find this out?

Or even just their U.S. matketshare.
But I want to know the US retail marketshare

I'd guess its US retail marketshare is much higher than its overall US sales marketshare, probably around 20-25%, since a lot of the others in front of it are much bigger sellers of PC to the enterprise. Corporate Macs are probably about 3-5% in the US.

 

[AlecZ]

Great, more confirmation for their behavior.

Glassed Silver:mac

I assume you mean the horrible 2014 Mac mini "update" and other similar incidents. I want to see Apple putting more effort into their Macs and not doing BS like soldering RAM and using mobile GPUs on desktop Macs, but they have no reason to.

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Who cares about market share?

I, now that I've sold my AAPL stock and don't care so much about profits.

 

[djgamble]

They're very stubborn with their prices so they won't be able to expand much.

$499 for a Mac Mini too expensive? I think the thing is:
1) Apple doesn't sell hundreds of thousands of units to corporations/government offices, which they replace regularly (and are locked into replacing with non-Apple gear running Windows AND their in-house Windows software... which is slow, ugly and created by IBM/HP for ridiculous amounts of money using cheap staff from the Philippines).
2) Apple don't try to cover all markets. They simply don't use low-end CPUs and don't use cheap/generic-looking cases so can't enter certain markets. They simply don't make a Mac with a big cheap black case containing blue/green LEDs, fat fans, a low-end AMD CPU that can be tweaked for gaming and a bunch of upgrade slots/potential for people to suck out more power and require a bigger power supply/multiple internal power cables (left dangling around) going into a big far energy-hungry GPU. And given their market sahre, they don't want to support this kinda stuff!!!!! They are smart to restrict supported configurations.
3) A lot of people don't like Apple gear so don't even consider Macs. This is part of why they have so much free advertising (from haters) and their unique, cult-like following (which others don't have).

~1% of the PC market is enough to make you a billionaire. If I could get 1% of the market buying my machines I wouldn't be complaining!!! Raising this kind of percentage looks small but represents millions of persons in a growing market.

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I assume you mean the horrible 2014 Mac mini "update" and other similar incidents.

What similar incidents? IMO this is one of the worst moves... going from having a hatch for easy upgrades to having soldered RAM is uniquely stingy IMO!!! There's no similar events, this is a unique situation.

IMO Apple's major upgrade issue is that they never let you upgrade the GPU, and many major OS X updates require a certain class of GPU. Nothing worse than having enough CPU grunt/RAM and being told 'sorry you need a better GPU!'

 

[dumastudetto]

More and more consumers and businesses are waking up to the reality that a Mac is the best choice.

In our company, Windows PCs used to outnumber Macs 20-1. Now it's 60-40 in favour of the Mac and only because we're still slowly phasing out all the Dells and HPs. There is no doubt the Mac is a productivity powerhouse and more and more enterprises are jumping on board. When you couple the Mac with the seamless experience of a mobile device like iPhone or iPad, it truly is a no-brainer to get your employees hooked into these integrated platforms with apps and experiences that work cohesively together.

 

[jtilak]

Yes, but it's not what Apple wants to do.

You're thinking of the old Apple. The one Steve Jobs was running. This is the new iPhone 5C Apple.

 

[AlecZ]

What similar incidents? IMO this is one of the worst moves... going from having a hatch for easy upgrades to having soldered RAM is uniquely stingy IMO!!! There's no similar events, this is a unique situation.

The similar situation is when Apple began soldering in RAM on lower-end iMacs a while back, and that's when they also started with those stupid mobile GPUs. Also the soldered-on RAM on MacBook Pros. I don't have to worry about that nonsense with my cheese grater, but if I wanted a new Mac, I'd build a Hackintosh at this point.

 

[CB1234]

Apple computers could have been better than they are, with smaller cost too, but they are not. On purpose.

Yes the purpose is called BUSINESS. The end result of this being to maximize Profits...


On a side note, I run Yosemite on my late 2008 MBP and by God, it's running so well... I want to change to a newer model, but because it is running so well I have no logical reason to change my MBPS, except vanity....

That's why MAC's are cheaper to own and run over long term...

 

[Trusteft]

Yes the purpose is called BUSINESS. The end result of this being to maximize Profits...

You are missing the point.

 

[dilbert99]

Is there a way Apple can catch up past the others?

Could Apple make a cheap computer? They can make expensive things which i'd imagine is a completely different kettle of fish to making cheaper things?

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More and more consumers and businesses are waking up to the reality that a Mac is the best choice.

In our company, Windows PCs used to outnumber Macs 20-1. Now it's 60-40 in favour of the Mac and only because we're still slowly phasing out all the Dells and HPs. There is no doubt the Mac is a productivity powerhouse and more and more enterprises are jumping on board. When you couple the Mac with the seamless experience of a mobile device like iPhone or iPad, it truly is a no-brainer to get your employees hooked into these integrated platforms with apps and experiences that work cohesively together.

Not for businesses, most buy pcs for the software. Why would they want to spend a fortune to run office or web browser?

 

[Macboy Pro]

The overwhelming number of corporate desktops do not get their ram changed out. That has nothing to do with the lack of Mac penetration in the enterprise. Enterprise generally doesn't care about **** like that. What they do care about is guaranteed level of support and 24/7 service. Apple has never shown any willingness to do that kind of corporate support, which is why their desktops have never gotten much traction there. The few big companies who do deploy Macs get third party support contracts.

If IBM is willing to step up their new support for iOS into Macs as well, we might see more adoption of Macs by enterprise. Until then, it'll be the status quo.

lol, I work for a company with nearly 400K employees and memory upgrades is extremely common. I agree with your second point since it was pretty much the same point I made. The 3 year limit on warranties is another issue. Many smaller businesses need longer life (and warranty) out of their systems. Forced obsolescence and lack of warranty coverage in 3 years (or less) is not attractive to small businesses.

 

[StoneJack]

Could Apple make a cheap computer? They can make expensive things which i'd imagine is a completely different kettle of fish to making cheaper things?

I think that they could make a headless xMac, a famous suggestion which is continuing from El Capitano days. I had blue and white G3, a computer which I modified as hell, replacing the CPU, GPU, adding memory, fast bus cards, changing DVD drive, everyhing except mobo and power supply. The 1998 computer initially came with OS 9 and worked well into 2007 with OS X. Now I don't like the new Mac Pros, but I would gladly have a mid ATX mainboard-based xMac with intel i7, swappable graphic card, and a number of PCI-E expansions. Indeed, this is what I have built myself. They still could sell such systems under 650 dollars; mine cost about 400 dollars including a no name case and modest power supply. It would be better seller than very limited mini, i think.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

There's no comparison to the efficiency and throughput possible with a full, textile keyboard.

A fabric keyboard?!?

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More and more consumers and businesses are waking up to the reality that a Mac is the best choice.

In our company, Windows PCs used to outnumber Macs 20-1. Now it's 60-40 in favour of the Mac and only because we're still slowly phasing out all the Dells and HPs. There is no doubt the Mac is a productivity powerhouse and more and more enterprises are jumping on board. When you couple the Mac with the seamless experience of a mobile device like iPhone or iPad, it truly is a no-brainer to get your employees hooked into these integrated platforms with apps and experiences that work cohesively together.

Off with the pixies...

 

[MacsRgr8]

I'm on my third iPad since buying my last of computer in 2008. I barely use my computer.

I had a gr8 laugh. Tnx!

 

[phrehdd]

Apple might be listed in fifth place but I wonder what their net profit is considering their high pricing. Then again, they are offering a new Mac Mini which is pathetic and making iMacs which can't be upgraded by the customers easily and on and on. Apple remains a seller of "cool factor" computers and not much else. Oh, the Mac Pro is a fair priced machine but its out of reach for common place customers. I'll just say I can praise OSX in general as compared to Gate's operating systems.

 

[j26]

Many corporate customers have been putting off upgrading hardware because of the economy and because of the mixed views on Windows 8. That may be accounting for some of the increase in market share.

If Windows 10 is a more compelling product for business, then there will likely be a wave of PC sales next year, dramatically reducing Apples market share, although that probably won't have a serious effect on mac sales, or profitability.

With consumers, many people are unimpressed with Windows 8, and that has opened them up to looking at macs, whereas previously the might have been PC only.
My thought on this is that if Apple offered a cheaper option, they could gain significant share in the consumer market. However, that window will close soon if Windows 10 addresses the perceived flaws in Windows 8.

 

[CFreymarc]

Curious to see how this holds after the Windows 10 release next year.

 

[iLondoner]

These lists count how many computers are sold. Whether the computer is £200 or £2,000 doesn't make a difference, it's one computer. The new Retina iMac starts at £1,999 ($2,499). Apple isn't going to sell gazillions of them. But someone else selling £200 computers must sell ten for every Retina iMac to make the same revenue.

A comparison by unit sales is only mildly interesting, a comparison by revenue would be far more revealing, but the real figure that drives future investment and shareholder return is comparison by profit.

As widely reported Apple has a minor share of the smartphone market in terms of units sold, but an estimated 86% of the profit.

I think Apple is doing just grand in the PC market. I can envisage a situation in the future where Mac sales continue more or less at today's level whilst the market as a whole gently collapses, and in that scenario Apple's unit market share will gradually rise.

.

 

[Piggie]

I'd say MOST companies, not fancy in the public eye/media ones, simply use a computer as a tool to do a job.

In exactly the same way a mechanic has tools to fix your car.

If you fix cars, or do business, you want a very flexible tool, you can use in many ways, that is compatible with the majority of things that you in your business may every come across.

You are not interested in the computer, what it looks like, what colour it is, how thin it it. It's a device, on/under your desk that you don't care about as you are focusing on your company business.

So you get a PC.

Apple is making no reasons to change that.

 

[CB1234]

You are missing the point.

Errrr.… I think not.