Apple's US Market Share Slips in 1Q 2009

[kas23]

Not entirely, because you have to look at the "purpose" of a graph that displays market share, what if it included the iPod Touch as a "computer?"

They can't include the iTouch as a "computer" because it is not a free-standing unit (it relies on another "computer") and the iTouch does not run a full-fledged OS - it runs a much watered-down version. A netbook does not rely on another computer for syncing or any other use. And netbooks run the same OS as a desktop. For basic use, a netbook is no different than a desktop.

For instance, say you sell 10 million computers a year, but are barely making any money off them (i.e. netbooks). How do you increases you profits for the next year? Sell more units? or increase the price (as a new model)?

I'm sure ASUS is not complaining about a 50% increase in sales. I'm 100% positive that they are not "barely making any money off them." And yes, they do increase profits by selling a new model in subsequent years. It is a lot easier for a consumer to economically justfy replacing a $299 device every 1-2 years than a $1500 device every 1-2 years.

 

[Carniphage]

Actually, either dollars or units are valid measures of market share. It's not "meaningless", it's just measuring something different than one based on dollars.

We are talking about a market. And markets are measured in terms of dollars spent.

To claim that a $300 loss-making netbook is "the same" as a $3000 Macbook pro is meaningless.

By value, Apple has about a third of the market.

C.

 

[ericinboston]

Share is all relative - Netbooks really are the cause IMHO.

How many Dell Mini's and HP Mini's flew off the shelf to increase market share.

Apple REALLY needs to get on the ball with a $399 Netbook.

They would FLY off the shelves. I would buy two immediately.

HHM

I agree...I bought a Dell Mini9 with XP Home, 1gig ram, and a 16g SSD for $275 to my door. $275 to my door. Let me say it a 3rd time...$275 to my door.



I have other machines in my house but the Mini9 is sooooooo awesome for quick couch web surfing, taking on vacation, 6 hour battery life, super super super quiet...never hot.

Love the thing to death.

 

[rhpenguin]

I resemble that remark! There is really nothing budget about the BoxSter except it's comparable price to the venerable 911. I have owned both (Porsche Fanatic). Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Ha, I wasn't slamming it at all, and they are a fantastic drive. They're just often referred to as the "Poor man's Porsche". That said though, I'd take a Honda S2000 any day of the week.

 

[synth3tik]

i dont think apple cares about market shares, they worry more about making great products.

That argument may have worked 10 years aago or more, but not now-a-days.

 

[ericinboston]

Looking at that graph this could be cyclical. Maybe we need another couple of quarters to accurately judge it.

These graphs really aren't the whole picture (horrible economy, etc) but my bet is that Q2 2009 will be another "down" curve for Apple. My reasoning, in no particular oder is: price of Macs are high (period...I'm not comparing to pcs), lack of Mac selection (no true desktop that I can add/customize easily...no netbooks), economy is still pretty bad, and lastly if someone wants (not "needs") to buy a new computer, there are literally hundreds of models to choose from under $1000 in the pc world...2 in the Mac world (Mini and MB and each are available in very limited configs).

-Eric

 

[IrishSniper87]

Bunkum dude.
Units are meaningless. Companies can churn out low-cost netbooks, claim a massive market share, and be losing cash faster than General Motors.

If one in every three dollars spent on computers goes to Apple. That means Apple has a 33% market share.

C.

You sir are missing the point.

Market share is by unit, but cash made is reporting in income and profits. You are talking about the total income of Apple as opposed to Dell and HP. That is NOT market share. That is income. If 1/3 dollars went to Apple, they have 33% income compared to Dell and HP.

Whether Market Share is a useful stat is another story though. The fact that one mac pro costs as much as 10 netbooks gets lost in your calculations.

 

[Anuba]

We are talking about a market.

No, you are talking about a market. Which would be a great idea on, I dunno, "MarketRumors.com" where the focus would probably be on the yawn-inducing financial end of things.

Around these parts, however, most of us are talking about number of Macs sold, which is equal to the number of OS X licenses sold.

If you're a software developer who is considering releasing a Mac version of your product, you want hard facts about the number of OS X installations in use. If Apple has somehow managed to sell one single specimen of a 60 billion dollar megacomputer, well that's great for them but it's still only one more potential customer for you.

 

[milo]

Units are meaningless.

You can repeat that all you want, but it doesn't make it true.

Sure, units measure something different than dollars, but the units stats are still useful...just for different things.

We are talking about a market. And markets are measured in terms of dollars spent.

Where did you get that definition? Or is that one you made up yourself?

To claim that a $300 loss-making netbook is "the same" as a $3000 Macbook pro is meaningless.

Well, then good thing I haven't claimed that.

I agree...I bought a Dell Mini9 with XP Home

And have you kept XP on it, or "upgraded"? (wink, wink)

 

[dejo]

If you're a software developer who is considering releasing a Mac version of your product, you want hard facts about the number of OS X installations in use.

Agreed. Unfortunately, getting installed-base figures is way harder than getting market share figures. And although one affects the other, they are different animals.

 

[IrishSniper87]

I agree...I bought a Dell Mini9 with XP Home, 1gig ram, and a 16g SSD for $275 to my door. $275 to my door. Let me say it a 3rd time...$275 to my door.



I have other machines in my house but the Mini9 is sooooooo awesome for quick couch web surfing, taking on vacation, 6 hour battery life, super super super quiet...never hot.

Love the thing to death.

Dell "MacBook Mini" 9. Just bought it off eBay. 16GB SSD, 2GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.5.6, $350 to my door.

Repeat, $350 to my door.

haha, I am very excited, I have used Mini 9's with OS X before as my friend has one, and this is a very neat little computer. He benchmarked his with 1GB RAM and OS X and it came out faster them some of the Apple powerbooks from only a few years back. Mine with 2GB RAM should hopefully be faster then that, we will see.

EDIT: It also included the XP install disk and the XP license. Solid deal!

 

[Anuba]

Market share is by unit, but cash made is reporting in income and profits. You are talking about the total income of Apple as opposed to Dell and HP. That is NOT market share. That is income. If 1/3 dollars went to Apple, they have 33% income compared to Dell and HP.

Well, technically both methods file under "market share":

"Market share, in strategic management and marketing, is the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company. It can be expressed as a company's sales revenue (from that market) divided by the total sales revenue available in that market. It can also be expressed as a company's unit sales volume (in a market) divided by the total volume of units sold in that market."

 

[bruinsrme]

Is the slipping really surprising news?

I am not sure about anyone else frequenting the forum but my discretionary spending is near zero for the past 7 months. Being a tech junkie my want to buy has turned into do I need to buy.

 

[randyhudson]

Uh... nobody has redefined the PC. A netbook is a PC that runs the exact same OS you'd find on a regular laptop or desktop. It's only a "netbook" when the processor is too weak to handle anything other than surfing and mailing. Put an Atom processor in a MacBook Air and voilá, you have a netbook.

According to wikipedia:

A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer​

You just proved my point by redefining PC to include devices where "the processor is to weak to handle anything other than surfing and mailing". At the same time, you failed to define it as something which doesn't also describe a PS3.

 

[IrishSniper87]

Well, technically both methods file under "market share":

Touche

 

[Trinity]

It's a bad economy. More people got cheap PCs for Christmas. Oh well.

and an outdated product line maybe... Mac Pro box is six years old, Mini four, iMac five. The prices are too high and no big inventions have been introduced in the past years. Maybe they will discontinue the whole hardware division soon...

 

[milo]

According to wikipedia:

A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer​

You just proved my point by redefining PC to include devices where "the processor is to weak to handle anything other than surfing and mailing".

How is that "redefining"? A PC has always been a PC regardless if it was underpowered and couldn't run all apps.

A PC is a computer that can run computer apps. Laptops, desktops, and netbooks all can do that. Game consoles can't do that, can they?

Since a game console can't run computer apps, I'd hardly call it a "general purpose computer". It's a game console that can run a browser.

 

[ericinboston]

And have you kept XP on it, or "upgraded"? (wink, wink)

Honestly, I love XP...It's been around for 8+ years and has always worked fine on my work and home machines.

I know I can hack the Mini9 into running OSX but I'm not interested...I mainly use the Mini9 for streaming iTunes into my home stereo, toting it around on vacations, and couch surfing. Nothing at all that would require any type of upgrade.

 

[milo]

Maybe they will discontinue the whole hardware division soon...

Who, Apple? You do realize the computer hardware division is what makes the majority of profits for Apple, right?

 

[milo]

Honestly, I love XP...It's been around for 8+ years and has always worked fine on my work and home machines.

I know I can hack the Mini9 into running OSX but I'm not interested...I mainly use the Mini9 for streaming iTunes into my home stereo, toting it around on vacations, and couch surfing. Nothing at all that would require any type of upgrade.

Thanks, I was just wondering. For a machine that is mostly surfing, the OS isn't as critical.

How is the box for video playback? What rez does it max out at?

 

[ravenvii]

and an outdated product line maybe... Mac Pro box is six years old, Mini four, iMac five. The prices are too high and no big inventions have been introduced in the past years. Maybe they will discontinue the whole hardware division soon...

Are you serious? Where did you get that? Within the past 5 years, the iMac got a internal webcam, a remote, a aluminum enclosure. The MacBooks got an unibody enclosure and internal webcams. Mac Pros do not need innovation, they are all about power, and they are definitely powerful. The Mac mini has finally recently been updated, and is worthwhile again.

Newbies fail once again.

 

[ericinboston]

Dell "MacBook Mini" 9. Just bought it off eBay. 16GB SSD, 2GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.5.6, $350 to my door.

Repeat, $350 to my door.

haha, I am very excited, I have used Mini 9's with OS X before as my friend has one, and this is a very neat little computer. He benchmarked his with 1GB RAM and OS X and it came out faster them some of the Apple powerbooks from only a few years back. Mine with 2GB RAM should hopefully be faster then that, we will see.

EDIT: It also included the XP install disk and the XP license. Solid deal!

That's cool...however, that's 1)illegal (OSX running on non-Apple sanctioned machines) and 2)not a commercial product.

I really am stressing #2 above...

But I hear ya that it's a good price.

 

[Anuba]

According to wikipedia:

A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer​

You just proved my point by redefining PC to include devices where "the processor is to weak to handle anything other than surfing and mailing". At the same time, you failed to define it as something which doesn't also describe a PS3.

It has a screen, and a keyboard, and a pointing device, and runs a standard version of Windows. It's weaker than a regular PC notebook due to the Atom processor, but it's also snappier than a 5 year old PC notebook. If weak processing power is a disqualifying factor, then you have redefined the PC. Suddenly, millions of old tower PCs became "netbooks".

 

[ericinboston]

Thanks, I was just wondering. For a machine that is mostly surfing, the OS isn't as critical.

How is the box for video playback? What rez does it max out at?

Wanna know what my favorite feature is of a sub-$300 netbook? If it gets stolen, wooped-dee-doo...I'm out $300...not $800 or $1200 or $2000. Besides, my credit card would cover the theft anyway. And not that I am made of money.

Of course you could substitue the word "stolen" for "dropped in the pool".

 

[milo]

Wanna know what my favorite feature is of a sub-$300 netbook? If it gets stolen, wooped-dee-doo...I'm out $300...not $800 or $1200 or $2000. Besides, my credit card would cover the theft anyway. And not that I am made of money.

Of course you could substitue the word "stolen" for "dropped in the pool".

I hear you, that's a major part of the appeal.

So how is video playback?