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Apple Grabs Record US PC Market Share On Strong Mac Sales in Q3 2014
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A lot of people seem to be arguing about specs, upgrade-ability, etc.
I prefer Mac over Windows because the user experience is better.
A little example: On a PC, when your wireless mouse dies, it just stops working. When the battery in my magic mouse was running low, my Mac told me that they would need replacing soon.
I prefer Mac over Windows because the user experience is better.
A little example: On a PC, when your wireless mouse dies, it just stops working. When the battery in my magic mouse was running low, my Mac told me that they would need replacing soon.
Which files for example?
Probably about 99.9% of the files produced in a professional environment nowadays can be opened by software both on PCs and Macs (especially seeing how the vast majority are anyway MS Office files). The remaining 0.01% comes from extremely specialized software that only applies to very few companies.
It looks like Apple's method of using the iPhone as a sort of gateway drug to the Mac is working. People with iPhones are impressed by the device and become curious about the Mac as well. Over time I see the Mac slowly gaining more market share in the future.
Even right now on my college campus the default setup of the average student tends to be an iPhone 4 or higher and a 13 in MacBook pro of some sort.
Apple seems to have captured the youth at an early age and it will pay off even more in the long run.
Even right now on my college campus the default setup of the average student tends to be an iPhone 4 or higher and a 13 in MacBook pro of some sort.
Apple seems to have captured the youth at an early age and it will pay off even more in the long run.
There are countless little things like this that make OS X on a Mac the best thing to use. Hardware-wise, the drivers are way less of a headache than otherwise (the main thing that scares me about a Hackintosh). Whenever I use Windows, I feel like I'm constantly having to deal with annoying little things, even if I'm just managing files.
Example: I tried to set up N64 and GC emulators on a friend's Acer laptop. The PS4 controllers had to use some ridiculous driver that kept having issues (like a program that kept opening twice and causing issues, another stupid thing that happens in Windows), and I gave up on trying to install Mupen64Plus because every system directory in Windows seems to be placed in a completely random location, among other issues, so manual installation was too much of a pain.
In your opinion of course.
I have a sub $300 laptop from 2012 and it's still going great.
These comments are like Justin Bieber...annoying.
Did you skydive with them or something?
Apple may have better market share in the U.S, and that's all they have
They can''t even go report outside the U.S with any stats... That's not a company, that's a liar..
And i hate liars..
Time to report globally like all other companies too...
this is so 1980's
That's all they have....hahaha
And tons of money in the bank.
So much about how important market share is.
You do know they don't play that game, right?
The Apple ( OS X, iOS ) vs. Microsoft discussion is really annoying. Haters everywhere.
Combine the Apple Hardware with a good OS ( and the good OS is NOT OS X, it is Windows ) and you have the best system you can buy as of today.
There are MUCH more problems with OS X, iOS and iCloud than with Windows and OneDrive. All of you can try.
Currently typing on a MacBook Pro, OS is Windows 7 and Windows 10 ( Technical Preview ).
Combine the Apple Hardware with a good OS ( and the good OS is NOT OS X, it is Windows ) and you have the best system you can buy as of today.
There are MUCH more problems with OS X, iOS and iCloud than with Windows and OneDrive. All of you can try.
Currently typing on a MacBook Pro, OS is Windows 7 and Windows 10 ( Technical Preview ).
How many folks in college had a smartphone? And if you looked at time of engagement, once you remove school work, do the students spend more time on their phones or their PC?
And students are not particularly representative. First of all, most US folks will not go to college, those folks are the majority. I think they use their phones much more than they use computers at home. Some folks don't even have a PC at home. But cell phone and even smartphone is getting near to ubiquitous, at least for folks under 50. They may use a computer at work, but their use case of it is probably pretty simple (remember, I'm talking about non-college graduates, the majority) and their employer will eventually transition to a tablet for their work.
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What happened to Windows 8? Do you not like it?
Apple still doesn't do the cloud all that well. It seems to be one of their few blind spots. Oh well. Can't get everything right.
Well I use 3DSMax the very very well known package that's been going for around 25 years, so that's screwed for a start as there isn't even a version for the Mac
While Windows 8/8.1 seems to be good as well ( functionality & stability ) I never considered to use it because the User Interface tends to be made for Touch Screens, not so much for Laptops and Desktops. Windows 10 corrects the ( my ? ) issue now. Normally I work with a Keyboard and a mouse, not with a Touch Screen ( well, on my iPad I need to do, but it is more a read-only and entertainment device than a computer ( in terms of productivity ) ).
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Tablets will replace PCs eventually.
GUI- and mouse-based computers sucked when they first came out in comparison to traditional, command line based machines. They lacked power, couldn't do much of anything that justified the relatively exorbitant cost, weren't compatible with most of the existing hardware and software, etc. I lived through that transition and heard geeks everywhere denouncing Apple's "toy computers" as a joke. At the time, it was true.
Things will continue to evolve and new ideas will incrementally improve the tablet experience until the PC becomes a thing of the past.
Tablets will not replace computers. The user interface ( touch ) is not good and too slow.
Try to write a book, try to write, compile and debug a program, try to make a good looking document on a tablet. You will end up with a keyboard and a mouse again and at this point there is no reason not to use a laptop or desktop.
Entertainment or information source -> tablet
Productivity -> laptop or Desktop
My $0.02
Mouse and GUI will never replace the command line. The user interface is not good and too slow.
Try to write a shell script, search the file system with a regular expression, edit system logs. You will end up on a command line again and at this point there is not reason not to use Unix or DOS.
Cute icons and fun clicking -> Mouse and GUI
Productivity -> Command line
My $0.02.
Nope. They've publicly reported $138 Billion in cash sitting outside the U.S. Those represent just part of the profits that non-U.S. customers have willingly given Apple for Apple products, instead of buying a Dell or Nokia, et.al.
Mouse and GUI will never replace the command line. The user interface is not good and too slow.
Try to write a shell script, search the file system with a regular expression, edit system logs. You will end up on a command line again and at this point there is not reason not to use Unix or DOS.
Cute icons and fun clicking -> Mouse and GUI
Productivity -> Command line
My $0.02.
You can take this with sarcasm, sure. It's about expectation and usage of your device. You edited, formatted, copied and pasted text with your tablet ? You think this is good ?
But I don't post here to convince people, I tell what I experience. I use my tablet(s) for Internet surfing, mail, reading books or newspapers, playing media, as a remote control and sometimes for making pictures.
This is
a) because of the slow UI and
b) because of the very limited functionality of the iPad when it comes to store any kind of data
I cannot work very good with a) and b). Maybe others can. I said already, just MY $0.02.
In your opinion of course.
No, not my opinion. They suck. They are almost absolutely lacking in capability compared to a PC.
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Really, the whole PC vs tablet thing is only a question of form factor. What advantage does a touch screen by itself have over a keyboard and mouse? Better for a few things, worse for everything else. It does nothing but introduce another obstacle you have to overcome to use it. The GUI actually makes things easier (though not everything, which is why I always have Terminal open too).
If they make an iPad more suitable for work, that will amount to making it double as a PC. Pretty much a full desktop OS and keyboard/mouse/screen connections. That's the route Microsoft took with the Surface, and of course they did it horribly and brought down Windows on a PC as a result by trying to simplify it.
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This is a misleading report. First of all, the title to me implies total market share, not a single year's worth of sales for "PCs" which Apple doesn't really compete with anyway because it PCs are almost universally thought of as Windows-based machines. People rarely, if ever these days buy a Mac to ONLY run Windows and if they want to run OS X for ANY reason, they HAVE to buy it from Apple (unless you're going to build a Hackintosh). So they get 100% of the OS X market share and thus, how do you even COMPARE computer sales from DIFFERENT MARKETS??? You CAN'T do it with a straight face.
Secondly, Apple had a MUCH larger home computer market share back in the 1980s and early 90s than it's EVER had with OS X (closer to 20%) and I mean total market share, not just a single year's sales (again, the title is deceiving).
All the article is really saying is that as a generic "hardware manufacturer" Apple sells more "machines" than any single brand company (all of which only compete against each other for Windows market share, not OS X share so thus again, it's an absurd comparison to begin with).
The real question is what is Apple's total home computer market share overall right now compared to Windows? It's hard to be certain since many Macs also double as Windows and even Linux machines through VMWare, Parallels and Boot Camp. I'm betting it's still no more than 7-10% at most, less counting the machines also running Windows a significant amount of the time. And what's a "PC" anyway? Are Microsoft's "Surface" line "personal computers" or "tablets/mobile/something else" ? The lines are blurred and getting blurrier. The bottom line is Windows still has far more software (especially games) than Macs ever will have due to Apple keeping OS X proprietary to its own hardware alone. The same is true of the iPhone. It can NEVER approach Android's market share due to having to compete against multiple manufacturer's all selling a competing operating system. Is Apple selling hardware or software? It's selling them combined so you often lose customers that don't like the hardware or the price even if they do like the software/gui/os somewhat better.
Secondly, Apple had a MUCH larger home computer market share back in the 1980s and early 90s than it's EVER had with OS X (closer to 20%) and I mean total market share, not just a single year's sales (again, the title is deceiving).
All the article is really saying is that as a generic "hardware manufacturer" Apple sells more "machines" than any single brand company (all of which only compete against each other for Windows market share, not OS X share so thus again, it's an absurd comparison to begin with).
The real question is what is Apple's total home computer market share overall right now compared to Windows? It's hard to be certain since many Macs also double as Windows and even Linux machines through VMWare, Parallels and Boot Camp. I'm betting it's still no more than 7-10% at most, less counting the machines also running Windows a significant amount of the time. And what's a "PC" anyway? Are Microsoft's "Surface" line "personal computers" or "tablets/mobile/something else" ? The lines are blurred and getting blurrier. The bottom line is Windows still has far more software (especially games) than Macs ever will have due to Apple keeping OS X proprietary to its own hardware alone. The same is true of the iPhone. It can NEVER approach Android's market share due to having to compete against multiple manufacturer's all selling a competing operating system. Is Apple selling hardware or software? It's selling them combined so you often lose customers that don't like the hardware or the price even if they do like the software/gui/os somewhat better.
It's not that much that they're stubborn about their pricing, they're stubborn about not entering certain market segments with low margins. There's two main reasons why Apple keeps out of these low margin segments:
1: These low margin devices will siphon sales from their higher margin devices
2: These low margin segments are a race to the bottom price wise, so to compete Apple would have to make use of much cheaper materials and designs, which would lead to the Apple brand being cheapened.
I remember Steve Jobs being asked about why Apple hasn't made a netbook back in 2008 or 2009 when the things were all the rage and his answer as pretty straight forward. He said that Apple does know how to make a $400 laptop, but they don't know how to make one that isn't a piece of crap.
A Tablet is just a computer in a thin box with a screen.
The iMac is, in effect just a tablet on a stand without a touch enabled screen and an external keyboard and touchpad/mouse.
So Yes.
A LARGE screen Tablet, that can rest on a stand for use whilst sat at a desk, and be operated by external peripherals will replace a PC in time.
Actually, this device exists now, in everything except screen size.
The Microsoft Surface.
+1
The only way at this point is to grow slowly, but they need to remain the leader in terms of premium products.
Even with the years they managed to keep strong, unique selling points that distinguishes them from the competition : it starts of course with OS X, continues with the only trackpad that actually isn't a PITA to use, the hardware design, the build quality, the best and thinnest all-in-one computer, and in the recent years the Fusion Drive.
And now iCloud is starting slowly to become a truly valuable service.
There are companies selling PCs, and there is one company selling Macs. The company selling Macs increased their market share. As far as they are concerned, the total market share of PCs dropped, and which PC maker gets what percentage of that market share is completely irrelevant. If PC maker A grows their share a bit by selling $10 cheaper than PC maker B, why would Apple care?
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Simple. Buy Acer, and let them sell the same computers that they sell now. Whoosh, Apple's market share goes up from 6% to 14%. Profits increase by about 0.00001%
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Glad to contribute to those stellar numbers: just got my 2014 RMBP 13", 3.0GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB-SSD.
It's as if someone was able to adapt an F-15 Eagle engine on a Ferrari: a thing of beauty, a thing of power.
Yup. You bet I'm bragging.
But since these numbers are unit sales, anyone spending £200 for a cheap Acer laptop contributed just as much. Which of course should put the "6%" into perspective.
No, and they shouldn't try to. There's a reason IBM sold off their PC division to Lenevo. Because it a was a huge languishing money loss and dead weight that was preventing their stock and company from growing. Look at how IBM's stock soared from the point they got rid of their consumer PC division. Also look at the companies ahead of Apple in PC sales. All, has-been businesses with little to no growth. No thanks. Apple doesn't need that business...
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