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Apple's U.S. Market Share Continues to Grow

Macmel said:
There's a big problem for Apple: the world doesn't end at the US border (as surprising as it may sound for some people).
I'm sorry, but I still see very difficult to justify a 1900 euro MBP versus a 600 euro HP or DELL if all I'm going to do is check my email, browse the internet and watch some videos. Because, and that's an absolute truth, most people don't use their computers for work,a nd even if they do, they use Office-like programs and little more. You don't need a Mac Pro or MBP for that.
If you are a gamer and you are ready to pay the extra price (instead of buying a PS3 or Xbox or whatever which are actually designed for that purpose), again Apple doesn't offer the right product anyway.
I'm European, and all people I know have computers at home, but no one owns a Mac. Only some of them use them at work. I work in Science and 10 years ago you couldn't see a PC in a lab: only the new PowerPC G3s were there (still one working in my former lab). Nowadays I would say is 50/50 and the tendency is to reduce the number of Macs, at least in some countries, and leave them for specific tasks. You have to do very specific things like Image/video/sound editing or use very demanding software in order to see a clear difference.
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This was a ridiculous post - what is at all different about the US market situation with Apple five years ago and this statement other than using euros instead of dollars. As we've gone over on this forum time and time again, the "cost difference" argument is simply a fallacy born from a 1998 understanding of mac products. If you factor in ANY level of quality, Apple computers are tremendously more cost effective than any PC on the market. Sounds like sour grapes that Apple has limited interest in European marketing right now. :rolleyes:
 
iPhone is a Mac

The iPhone (and iPod Touch) is a trojan horse Mac. It runs a version of OS X and provides the same ease of use and simple user interface.

By all accounts, Apple should have named it a Mac but chose to market it as a phone to give it a focus in a highly profitable market, prevent customer confusion and circumvent the misinformation about the Mac.

So if you count the iPhone in here, Apple has a very respectable US market share and a growing worldwide one.

If Apple releases a "tablet Mac" based on the familiar iPhone OS and leveraging its – by then – huge app library and business market penetration, this Mac will have a very high adoption rate. Microsoft won't know what hit it.

I'll throw in here a prediction that OS X (iPhone + Mac) will be the dominant OS by 2012.
 
As weird as it may sound, I don't find this to be the greatest of news. I think a lot of people don't realize that the larger Apple gets, the less personal they become.

I don't feel as well-taken-care-of by Apple as I used to since they've busied themselves by "appealing to the masses."

Shareholders should be happy though. Too bad they're ruining the feel of the company.

-Clive
 
andiwm2003 said:
wow, that means probably the apples market share in home computers is over 10%. great news. that means more and more software developers making programs and also more peripherals.
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not sure if you can really equate the two given that windows still holds a ~90% market share, which is more critical to software development
 
Macmel said:
I'm sorry, but I still see very difficult to justify a 1900 euro MBP versus a 600 euro HP or DELL if all I'm going to do is check my email, browse the internet and watch some videos.
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If that's all your doing on your laptop, a less expensive MacBook is plenty sufficient. A MacBook Pro is overkill. :)
 
Superdelphinus said:
not sure if you can really equate the two given that windows still holds a ~90% market share, which is more critical to software development
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I think you can, to some degree at least. When the Mac's market share was plummeting, developers were fleeing the Mac software market. It's not entirely about market share, it's also about the confidence that the Mac platform will survive, or even thrive.
 
Clive At Five said:
As weird as it may sound, I don't find this to be the greatest of news. I think a lot of people don't realize that the larger Apple gets, the less personal they become.

I don't feel as well-taken-care-of by Apple as I used to since they've busied themselves by "appealing to the masses."

Shareholders should be happy though. Too bad they're ruining the feel of the company.

-Clive
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That's fair enough I think, but I remember to my early mac support experiences in 1992 when the only option was through a paid telephone labyrinth with people who kinda understood how to fix things. Compare that to 2008's Apple stores and genius bars, incredible product availability in major retailers (remember when we had to go to one of the 4 mac-specialty stores in the country or order on the phone), extensive apple care support and the current intel/mass production nature of the hardware it is 1000x easier to get a mac fixed or have a problem diagnosed within a few minutes, let alone a day. Yes, I think some quality control issues have popped up but generally speaking I love that for the first time in my computing life I can acquire mac products as easy and with much greater customer satisfaction than I can PC products. For now I say grow Apple, grow!
:apple:
 
The World does not end at US Borders

The figures are encouraging. But i think Apple could easily boost their Global figures by spending a few of their spare $ on advertising. While shiny Apple Retail Stores do the marketing thing extremely well, they are quite scantly spread out with the USA. As an example, Scotland has a population of around 5 million. We have 1 Apple Retail Store, which is located in Glasgow [largest city]. Our capital [Edinburgh] has no official Apple presence. We have a couple of other 'University' cities. Again, no Apple presence. I can say for sure if this is the case around the rest of the world. But with various vendors advertising constant cheap deals on Windows PC's, it is easy to see why people don't come over to the way of Mac.

A few million $ on some good advertising would go a long way to help boost the Global marketshare.

What like is Apple presence etc in your area??
 
KevanDual2.5 said:
The figures are encouraging. But i think Apple could easily boos their Global figures by spending a few of their spare $ on advertising. While shiny Apple Retail Stores do the marketing thing extremely well, they are quite scantly spread out with the USA. As an example, Scotland has a population of around 5 million. We have 1 Apple Retail Store, which is located in Glasgow [largest city]. Our capital [Edinburgh] has no official Apple presence. We have a couple of other 'University' cities. Again, no Apple presence. I can say for sure if this is the case around the rest of the world. But with various vendors advertising constant cheap deals on Windows PC's, it is easy to see why people don't come over to the way of Mac.

A few million $ on some good advertising would go a long way to help boost the Global marketshare.

What like is Apple presence etc in your area??
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No offense, but a country of 5 million is smaller than each of the first 21 largest states in the US by population. I don't mean to start a US-Euro flame war but instead point out that building multiple stores in scotland, or wherever, and spending tons on advertising there is synonymous with spending tons of money trying to get the word out to Montana or Wyoming and the 5 people there. Someday Apple will get there, but they are growing and starting from 0 stores and limited advertising, Apple can't be everywhere at once and the little guys will come later. Also, Apple IS an American company and all the trade/tech issues with their products are settled here first and easiest. Of course they will market heavily in the US because it's cheaper to do so. Look at the slow iTunes store spread as an example of the interference of European rules and trade practices with Apple's business.
 
Will this make Safari snappier? LOL

Just kidding...I think this is great news. I too hope that they don't get too big, and forget about quality, and continuing to keep OS X and Mac what it is...
 
maelstromr said:
No offense, but a country of 5 million is smaller than each of the first 21 largest states in the US by population. I don't mean to start a US-Euro flame war but instead point out that building multiple stores in scotland, or wherever, and spending tons on advertising there is synonymous with spending tons of money trying to get the word out to Montana or Wyoming and the 5 people there. Someday Apple will get there, but they are growing and starting from 0 stores and limited advertising, Apple can't be everywhere at once and the little guys will come later. Also, Apple IS an American company and all the trade/tech issues with their products are settled here first and easiest. Of course they will market heavily in the US because it's cheaper to do so. Look at the slow iTunes store spread as an example of the interference of European rules and trade practices with Apple's business.
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Your points are valid. However, i gave Scotland as an example. It's where i live. I am not suggesting that Apple should spend $m in Scotland. But lots of little pieces make up one big piece.

One of the other huge problems is that average Joe sees the cost of an Apple product in US$, does a quick conversion, then compares it to the price he would pay for that device in his country.

MacBook price of $1099 equates to £548.99. But the UK price for the same item is £699. Average Joe thinks this is a rip off.
 
KevanDual2.5 said:
One of the other huge problems is that average Joe sees the cost of an Apple product in US$, does a quick conversion, then compares it to the price he would pay for that device in his country.

MacBook price of $1099 equates to £548.99. But the UK price for the same item is £699. Average Joe thinks this is a rip off.
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Average Joe doesn't realize that US prices do not include taxes, for one. ;)
 
KevanDual2.5 said:
That's the point i am making. When you do the calculation on the price difference back to US$, the difference appears to be $300.
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Appears to be, but isn't. The prices for these goods haven't changed in either market -- they only appear to have changed because the dollar is weak now. At times when the dollar was strong, goods appeared to Americans to be cheaper abroad, but the only way to get those bargains was to travel abroad and convert those dollars into other currencies and spend them in that country. The exact same principle applies now. If you want to exercise the full value of your strong currencies, you must travel to the places where your currency is strong.
 
maelstromr said:
This was a ridiculous post - what is at all different about the US market situation with Apple five years ago and this statement other than using euros instead of dollars. As we've gone over on this forum time and time again, the "cost difference" argument is simply a fallacy born from a 1998 understanding of mac products. If you factor in ANY level of quality, Apple computers are tremendously more cost effective than any PC on the market. Sounds like sour grapes that Apple has limited interest in European marketing right now. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You really need to do some market research because this is complete nonsense.
 
This is excellent news for Apple. I just hope that if Apple does reach the top it doesn't get like other companies and figure that since it is so good it won't have to work hard to stay the best. I mean look at Microsoft, they know their product will sell so they tend to not care so much about good engineering. The same is true with companies like Wal-Mart (I just hope my managers don't read these forums) where I have worked for over 2 years and I see that they know they are the number one retailer in the United States and that they don't need to care about customer service and really lately they don't care so much about keeping their prices down either. I just gave two examples but the list goes on. Apple is already shown with the iPhone by choosing plastic to keep the cost down that they are more concerned about the bottom line than they are the quality of the product (though honestly, I can't fully back this argument because I haven't used the new iphone, I have heard that people were not too dissapointed with it, I mean look how many have sold and I will eventually get one).
 
law guy said:
I still have yet to meet someone with an Acer computer. I can't recall them at business meetings. I don't seem them in the wild. It's hard to believe that they are 8 percent.
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They are around. I believe however that they have a bigger share of the foriegn market. Asia specifically.
 
law guy said:
I still have yet to meet someone with an Acer computer. I can't recall them at business meetings. I don't seem them in the wild. It's hard to believe that they are 8 percent.
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My mother-in-law has an Acer Aspire desktop, which she got a little over a year ago when her HP Pavillion's motherboard died. (Both were Wal-Mart purchases.) She wanted something ultra-cheap for basic Internet and MS Office for her job, and she wanted it right then-- no mail-order.

Sure, it's an AMD Sempron on a no-name mobo with a case that would crumple if you looked at it cross-eyed, but it fit her nearly non-existent budget and it does what she wants. Oh well...
 
Marx55 said:
The day the Mac reaches 25% market share, Windows will be wiped out from planet Earth in three years. Windows is maintained by sheer ignorance and inertia.
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Absolutely, this is just a continuous trend...Apple has a fabulous lead in terms of design, OS, hardware reliability and overall quality, and the market is answering to these obvious facts after years of sheer ignorance, media bashing and monopolistic abuses by Microshaft.

The best desktop in the world? iMac.
The best portable in the world? MBP.
The best music players in the world? iPods.
The best smartphone in the world? iPhone.

Indeed, those that were living under the rocks or in the caves of the Windows world are finally seeing the light. And this is why MS is DEAD.

GO APPLE! TORA! TORA! TORA!
 
BRLawyer said:
Absolutely, this is just a continuous trend...Apple has a fabulous lead in terms of design, OS, hardware reliability and overall quality, and the market is answering to these obvious facts after years of sheer ignorance, media bashing and monopolistic abuses by Microshaft.

The best desktop in the world? iMac.
The best portable in the world? MBP.
The best music players in the world? iPods.
The best smartphone in the world? iPhone.

Indeed, those that were living under the rocks or in the caves of the Windows world are finally seeing the light. And this is why MS is DEAD.

GO APPLE! TORA! TORA! TORA!
Click to expand...

Dell sold 500K units more than Q2 2007. Apple sold 300K more.

Reports of MS's demise are greatly exaggerated.
 
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