oh, i dont know about that. the percentage would probably be somewhere around the same mark as what apple's market share is
is that really? well, i guess its impossible to get a number anyway....
1. Quality control. And guarantee... That's why any problem with Apple products usually get publicity.
2. Elegant and less bloated (Vista) and more advanced (XP). Yes, for most people XP is good enough, and maybe Vista too, but this is where the "niche" thing (gosh, how many times more do I need to type that) comes in. People want to do more complex tasks more productively.
2b. Softwarehaving plenty of software doesn't mean the software is good; quantity ≠ quality. One of the reasons, stated earlier in the thread, why I stick with OS X is because of iWork, Quıcĸsıɩⅴεʀ, BBCode, and Pixelmator (Adobe is bloated).
And TCO. Yes, the usual argument. You know full well how that works. And that you've got to pay for too... In one way or another. Again where the niche comes in. Do you want to pay for it in the product itself or in the frustration of problems in using the product.
Even if you say OS X productivity is = to Windows, the lack of viruses, major plagued problems/driver/UAC/etc... naturally makes OS X more valuable, thus the higher price. For those who can cope or is willing to solve them, they can opt for Windows. For those who just want an error-free (more or less) experience, they need to pay more.
several points to consider, and Im being extremely frank about what I can agree and what I can not.
1. quality control and guarantee, My experience with my MB and some purchases of iPod and iPod Touch were't good, I will reserve a judgment on a general statement for this, but obviously its hard to convince me as an individual since I have two repairs of MB and 1 repair of iPod, and 1 exchange and 1 return of iPT, basically, among 5 apple products I ever owned/own, 60% of them went through some sort of quality problem and I stuck with no computer for a month for one time.
2. software bloat, just simply saying "bloat" won't convince me, and with everybody has 2GB+ Memory nowadays, I highly doubt that statement can convince many people at all.
2b. quality!=quantity, but when you confronted by the fact that there is no such software on mac at all, there is no quality to talk about. not to mention, I firmly believe competition produce superior products, and that means quantity will improve quality. You stick with Mac because of iWork, QS, etc, there are more people stick with windows because of office 07, games, professional softwares, etc.
TCO, I think what you listed can not convince me, mainly because I have none of the issues you mentioned. My pc has no more repairs than my MB, and I got free AVG all the time.
Major plagued problems are just mac world's fantasy, its far less significant than it sounds like.
All in all, prefer of an OS is your decision and I do not dispute it, you like things about OSX, by all means use it, but those are very personal preferences and do not amount to appealing enough reason to judge an OS on a massive scale.
TOC is, IMHO, FUD.
I dont really expect anybody to change minds, I m just saying, people in the Mac centric world have too many unreal ideas around them, many of them just aren't true.
key to aid you.