Gartner: Apple's Q1 2007 Marketshare Up from 2006

[rosalindavenue]

Apple doesn't seem to be worried about gaining market share. If they were, they would be more aggressive about dropping prices to stay competitive, update the existing models regularly, and not blundered with Leopard blaming a phone for an additional 4 month lag time.

DING DING DING! We have a winner. The way to gain marketshare today is price, price and price. Apple's not in that game. Not even a little bit. And the handling of the Leopard delay (crediting/blaming the iphone) is really galling to those of us who want an Apple computer.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

I have a few thoughts to add..

This is good news.
Apple however must now do their best to keep this marketshare.
This means hiring new people, and intensify their marketing on non us markets. There are many parts of the world where Apple has no foothold whatsoever, or very limited.
But not only Apple needs to step up, it's the software companies everywhere that will have to follow along. Software they write has to be multiplatform, so that the excuse of "there is no software for it " goes away.(for many people this means games, and small utility programs for the everyday consumer i.E: world maps, garden and interior design (I don't mean the pro packages), educational software (for non us markets), etc, and all the cheap stuff that you can find in bookstores, supermarkets, gas stations, the so called "crapware", it is all needed to change the perception)
MY wife complaints there is nothing for the kids, she finds a fun looking title in a supermarket for our 3 and 5 year old, and on the side it says "PC CD rom".
My argument saying that this is not very good software, doesn't matter. It is the public perception, which in above case is illustrated in hard facts.
By the way, this is the UK situation, which is a country where Apple now has several stores, and an intensified marketing campaign. There are loads of countries where this is not (yet) the case.
Anyone else any thoughts on this?

How about 25 of the 27 states in Europe have no Apple stores at all, not a single one brick and morter store between the 25 of them. How'd ya like them Apples?

 

[williedigital]

Honestly, long term mac growth has little to do with any of these factors. The things that matter:
1. Macs look cool. Both the device itself and the OS.
2. Computers have become more integrated into people's lives, especially their non-work lives. They are a more "visible" component of one's identity.
3. Because computers are more integrated and visible, consumers want aesthetically pleasing devices, and perhaps most importantly, distinct devices. People will pay SOOOO much to look cool, and that's something that we forget. They will gladly spend tens of thousands of dollars on cars/clothes/homes/refrigerators that are more distinct and therefore more "elite". Of course, there is the mod/truly specialized computer makers that could make something even more distinct, but most people don't want to stand out that much. As an analogy:
PC=live in the suburbs and wear clothes from Sears.

Mac=live in an urban area and wear clothes from Express/H&M.

Mod=those people in Manhattan that dress really weird and you can't figure out what job would allow them to dress that way, but who obviously have mad ends and go to parties where people do coke off of modern art sculptures.

To witness the difference first hand, go to a hipster coffee shop and then to a starbucks where mid-30's business people hang out. Tally the mac ratio at each location.

 

[Maccus Aurelius]

People did back in 1984

Apple's biggest downfall is the price for the computer
People see PC's and see it comes with windows, and the bloat ware. And it's all they are used to. When they look at Apple's line of products, it is very appealing, but one of the biggest complaints is price. Instead of making PC's look bad in their commercials, they need to be showing all the things that come with the iMac (eg. frontrow, dashboard, expose, etc). This would make the ~2000$ price tag not look so harsh.

I find that lots of non-mac users who are also non-tech savvy are completely unaware of some or most of the niceties that come with the computer, such as front row standard and the iLife suite (regardless of anyone's opinions of these applications, the iLife suite is actually pretty fun and useful for some people, including myself).

I brought my macbook to work and one of the attorneys needed to look at some footage for a case. None of the Optiplexes here are equipped with DVD-ROM, and the one computer that was would not read it. So I handed my macbook to him so he could use it in the conference room and I thought it was funny how people were 'oohing' at simple little Front Row. This may not be impressive to us, but to people who are used to simply using an OS without using any kind of integrated media functions it would be.

 

[PNW]

I'd also say customers buy into an OS more than hardware. You get the best of both with Apple... which is why I wonder why stories still pop up here and there about installing OSX on a PC. Whywhywhywhywhywhywhy?

Reason #1: No mid-range tower.
Reason #2: Some of us just like to tinker and build things from scrap, and you can’t really do that with Mac hardware.
Reason #3 Sort of 1+2. I can build exactly the PC I want and upgrade it as soon as hardware companies upgrade their parts, but with a Mac I have to wait for Apple to update their line and hope that the update is close to what I want.

I think that OSX is the best thing going in an OS, but Apple's hardware line leaves a lot to be desired for the savvy, non-pro, consumer


As for games for young kids we’ve found that the Flash based (therefore platform independent) games on many educational web sites (e.g. Sesame Street) are the best for our 3 year old.

 

[GanleyBurger]

Yikes!!!

I'm sure someone's mentioned it before, but I just now realized why Apple made its Leopard delay so public: They want people to buy new macs now, now that CS3 is out. If people still thought Leopard was due in June, they might decide to wait until then to get a new Mac plus CS3, but this way, a lot of people will be tempted to get new computers right away.

Hmmmm... this makes too much sense, stop scarring me, honestly.

If true, we are at the start of Q2 (Apr, May, Jun). So... if they don't offer new hardware until Q4 (Oct, Nov, Dec), people would buy in Q2 and Q3.

Man I hope this isn't true. I sure hope we will get the Santa Rosa update by June. If no hardware comes out by the Tuesday after WWDC, I'm forced to hit the Buy button. I'm waiting because I'm a recording engineer, and want the hardware to have no problems when Leopard comes...

 

[digitalbiker]

I'm waiting because I'm a recording engineer, and want the hardware to have no problems when Leopard comes...

I guarantee you that your hardware will work just fine with Leopard. I have been using macs for longer than I care to say and I have never known Apple to release a new OS that abandonded previous hardware unless it is at least 3 years old or more.

 

[Rocketman]

China CRUSHES Microsoft

Microsoft titles have been widely pirated in China (and other countries) for many years. Very few people actually pay for licenses for software in China, simply because there is no incentive to do so, since China does not enforce copyright violators except for rare selective TV camera purposes, even if that pirating is on a massive scale and very widespread and openly public.

To highlight this Microsoft's Vista OS has sold ONLY about 350 licenses throughout China since release. By comparison, in the USA a country with about 1/6 the population has sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Microsoft co-founder was in China this week to propose a solution. Offer a $3.00 license to the OS, office and some associated apps for "schools or students" where the GOVERNMENT buys computers for them.

Why would MS sell a full license for an over USD $1000 retail value recent software package for $3 (yes you read that right)? They want to get people in this region accustomed to using legal, licensed software at ANY price on the hopes China and other countries will transition over time to respecting and enforcing copyrights. Further MS wants to stem the tide toward properly free OS's such as Ubuntu Linux.

The hope is once the market matures in China MS will already have an effective monopoly on market share, mind share, trained users, and upgrade cycles.

It might just work. China is a centrally managed communist state. A large part of their GDP is fueled by product pirating on a wide range of goods on a large scale. It cuts costs. MS is conforming to someone even bigger than them. Communist China.

Rocketman