Is Apple going to die?

[scan300]

Many others haven't died

My first PC was an Amiga. I switched to Mac in the early 90's for my DTP freelance business. Amiga, you would think, should be dead, but its OS is nearing version 4, and running on x86 and PPC architectures. see http://www.amiga.com/. It's a small company, but it still has a following and I still see a booth at the local PC show. Atari no longer makes PCs or an OS but it's still a software company. Sun has had one legal battle after another, but it's still in the game, and still shipping Solaris. Other flavours of Unix and Linux still have clout in the OS world.

There are a lot of reasons to buy a Windows PC, but they don't cater for everyone, that's why we have diversity, and these companies cater to that diversity. I buy Mac because no other company can deliver simplicity derived from well thought out design/engineering principles. Others buy Macs for the same or other reasons.

Losing market share does not translate to a losing business. Apple is a big business. If it loses relevance -- then it will die a slow death, or get sold.

 

[mj_1903]

It's pretty simple really. The iPod will die, as cell phones that can play mp3's replace it, but right now it is Apple's Mac marketing campaign, and it is doing so much better than the switchers campaign. Not only that, but the iPod marketing campaign is earning money for Apple which can only be a good thing.

Once the iPod dies off in 3-4 years time, Apple will have a much broader appeal and their marketshare will have gone up (we are seeing that now).

I switched to Mac and based my entire business around writing Mac OS X software. I have faith that they will not disappear anytime soon.

 

[QCassidy352]

Apple Computer, Inc.: Proudly going out of business since 1995.

Really, the Windows Lusers and 'industry pundits' have been saying "Apple is dying" for years. First it was not licensing the MacOS, then it was the Newton, then Windows 95 is just as good and cheaper, then the ugly iMac would flop, then nobody will buy the iPod, blah blah blah. I'm serious, if you can find a trade magazine from anytime after about 1992 or so, I'm positive you will find at least one story or comment about how Apple is dying. The way I see it, they're doing pretty well for having been dying for over 10 years.

I for one won't be concerned until the 'analysts' all start saying Apple is the greatest company on Earth. At which point I'll be more concerned about staying out of the way of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Hahahaha!

Amen. If I had a nickel for every prediction of Apple's demise...

Apple has rarely in its history looked better than it does right now. Even PC magazines praise the ipod and new imac. The G5 is a very good chip that can compete with high end PCs. G5 servers have been shown yield the best price/performance ratio out there for supercomputers. I'm with EminenceGrise; I'll worry when everyone jumps on the Apple bandwagon.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Do you guys think Apple is going to survive, or go down like all the Winblows users say?

Die? No. Metamorph into a consumer’s electronics company? My guess: yes.

If it wasn’t for the iPod Apple’s quarterly’s wouldn’t look half as good as they do.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Amen. If I had a nickel for every prediction of Apple's demise...
Apple has rarely in its history looked better than it does right now. Even PC magazines praise the ipod and new imac. The G5 is a very good chip that can compete with high end PCs. G5 servers have been shown yield the best price/performance ratio out there for supercomputers. I'm with EminenceGrise; I'll worry when everyone jumps on the Apple bandwagon.

The problem is they may be right. But its not like an overnight *snap of the fingers* death Mac sales aren't exactly sky rocketing. Right now at best they stand in the 3% market share niche. And unlike BMW and the like Apple depends on 3rd party developers. What makes more sense. Develope software for a 3% market share or a 90%? Its not hard to do the math. As for the rave reviews; remember Apple’s multi colored iMac? It was praised as well. That didn’t keep Apple from dropping market share.

Apple has this inability to maintain momentum. Check that they have that inability with their puters. They’ve done dang well with the iPod but that is simply because its cross platform compatible. If it was still a Mac only product, which by the way a number of Mac users screamed over when Jobs announced that, the iPod would have tanked.

On the bright side there are est that Apple could conceivably gain %.5 of a percent in market share by the end of 2005. If that is the best they can muster with MS at their weakest I frankly would hate to see what happens when MS DOES, eventually, release Longshot. The main reason people are pissed at MS right now and ARE defecting is security. Ease of use my ass. People are forced to use Windows at work. It’s not that hard.

No, if MS can somehow manage to get security locked down correctly they could be in good shape. And herein is the problem. People continue to use Windows because its "good enough" Once it gets to a point where its above the good enough stage most users won't give a rats butt how EASY or pretty OS X is even more so if they can't slap it on their existing system. No if anything Linux will be a threat to MS if the developers can ever get a clue about GUI construction. (KDE and Gnome SUCK!!! They have gotten better but they still do.)

So back to my original point. Apple has become all but irrelevant in most cases. Even Jobs himself has admitted that they lost the war. At this point it would be a freaking miracle if Apple could even climb back into the double digit market share range. But that isn't going to happen.
Apple's been marginalized by these uber cheap computers that get the job done for most people. Apple can't even keep up with current demand for their products as it is. Unless they change tactics they will NEVER be back to where they were 10 years ago and as I said before like it or not Windows can only get better. I know that is a bitter pill and goes counter to everything a Mac user thinks of MS but there it is.

No, where Apple is going to have to hope to shine is consumer electronics. Apple can’t take MS on head to head with their OS.
You guys remember Tron and those light cycle races where they don't actually go head to head right? The best Apple can do is cut MS off in other markets. iTunes/iPod is a perfect example of this. Unless Apple does a complete blunderf***up and really messes things up again they own this market. They need to keep this momentium and move into other markets as well before MS tries to cut them off. The holy grail of all of this? The set-top box.
What? You don’t think MS really wants to be in the video game biz do you? BS. They know that there is a good possibility the desktop may be going away in 10-20 years or sooner. That is why they are pouring ungodly amounts of cash at the market. Whoever owns the console may very well own the future of computing. Sony sees this. MS sees this. Nintendo doesn’t give a crap. And Apple. Well I don’t know where Apple fits into all of this. But they are going to be a player in there somewhere. Again time will tell. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Sony/Apple relationship in the future. Once X-Box dethrones the PSX Sony might rethink their earlier rebuffing of Apple and their iPod. I can see some sweet things coming out of a Sony/Apple alliance against the Redmond giant.

PS- Hotwire. Dude. You don't have a long post. Trust me on this. I cut out a page and a half

 

[James L]

OK,

Let's make sure we all understand market share. Company A sells 10,000,000 machines per year, so does company B. Each company has a 50% market share.

Now, Company A continues to sell 10,000,000 computers per year, but company B increases their sales to 20,000,000 per year. The market share has now changed from 33% for company A, and 66% for company B.

A few years later, Company A is selling 20,000,000 per year, while company B is selling 80,000,000 per year! Company A now has a 20% market share, as opposed to the 80% that Company B has.

Do you see what I am getting at? Company A is still viable, productive, and profitable. There are still lots of opportunities for developers to profit from writing software for company A's machines. The fact that Company B is growing faster does not take away from the success of company A, even though that success is not reflective in the marketshare.

Facts about Apple:

1) Debt free.

2) $5 billion dollars in the bank.

3) Selling over 3 million Macs per year, 40-50% of which are laptops.

4) On track to selling over 10,000,000 iPods per year, with over an 80% marketshare in that area.

5) Successful in the software department, and becoming more so in the server/enterprise industry.

6) I could be wrong about this, but I do not think Apple has posted an unprofitable quarter since Q1 2000. That is over 4 years ago.

...tell me again how this is a bad thing?

Does your friend also think BMW is going out of business? Does your friend think that all high end companies, that sell infinitely less than the bulk, consumer products sold in wal marts, are also going out of business?

Please let your friend read this, and have him take a basic course in economics.

Cheers!

p.s., Oh, and to the user who feels that Apple laptops are overpriced, configure a laptop on Dells site with the same stats and the price would probably be pretty close.

 

[thatwendigo]

If it wasn’t for the iPod Apple’s quarterly’s wouldn’t look half as good as they do.

F.

U.

D.

All figures show that Apple's machine sales are up year over year, quarter over quarter, and that the iPod revenues are about the same as copies of OS X sold aside from machines. It's not at all the major saving grace that PC trolls try to make it out to be.

For a company that's reliant on third party hardware, it sure seems odd that the iPod sales didn't explode, but the profits did. Apple posted a $61 million profit last quarter, up roughly $40 million.

What happened? The iMac G5 did, for one.

 

[raynegus]

I've used a Mac since the original 128K in 1984. I can't tell you how many times critics have come and gone, proclaiming the demise of Apple. That saying is so damn old. The next generation of users will be saying it too.

Financially, Apple is in a better position than other giants like Sony. Sony is something like $8 billion in debt. Apple has no debt. And iPod sales are stronger than ever:

"The iPod had an 82 percent share of the market in U.S. retail stores in the 12 months ended in August, up from 64 percent in the same period a year earlier, and 33 percent two years ago, according to Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group Inc."

One thing is certain: Steve seems to hit the mark when everyone, including mac-heads, predicts he'd missed it.

 

[SiliconAddict]

OK,

Let's make sure we all understand market share. Company A sells 10,000,000 machines per year, so does company B. Each company has a 50% market share.

No. You really don't get it. Market shares DO matter to a software developer.
90% vs. 3% Do the math. Which is more likely to move more copies of your product? And to make matters worse since we are talking different platforms (e.g. x86 vs PPC.) porting from one to another is a PITA. So a developer has to look long and hard at development costs and potential sales before putting out a product on a niche market platform. If, and I stress IF I want to remain optimistic for now, if Apple's market share continues to fall vendors will start questioning the necessity of developing for OS X. Look at konfabulator. How long as this app been OS X only? Now they are coming out with a Windows version. Part of this was obviously spurred by Apple's dashboard but also because there is an unbelievable huge market there to tap. Even a handful of those "poor windows bastards" would probably net them more then what they make on OS X users. Market share has always and will always matter.
Like it or not the reason Mac users have shied away from market share numbers is because there is nothing left to brag about there. It's like a Bush spin cycle TV ad. If you can't focus on something that works for you ignore it and focus on something else that you can claim as an accomplishment.
Numbers are nice. However numbers alone don't sustain a market.

 

[zelmo]

Apple is going to be around for a while, and so will the Mac - count on it. Apple has been steadily transitioning itself from just a computer hardware manufacturer to a digital lifestyle provider. The iMac was the first piece in the plan. iPod, AExtreme, AExpress, iSight, and iLife are all extensions of that same plan. You can pick and choose the specific elements that work for you, which is nice. If you are a PC user, then you can still buy in as far as the iPod and iTMS. There may be a few more pieces that cross over to TDS(we'll see soon, I think). Hopefully, that is enough to tempt a few people to take a harder look at the Mac. It'd be gratifying to see the market share closer to 10%, if only to validate our feelings about Mac superiority. If not, Apple has enough core business to survive a long time, unless they do something extraordinarily dumb.

They make great hardware, great software, have that cool cachet, and make money. They don't need to dominate the market to survive. They don't need to buy lots of ad's. The subliminal ad's you see when there are product placements in TV shows, movies, catalogues, and commercials (which Apple pays for in some fashion) are in some aspects even better than straghtforward ads - they show people (ok, actors) actually using the products.

You can point to the iPod as an indication that Apple has lost focus, but you have to admit that more people are aware of Apple as a company because of the iPod than if it had never existed. You can buy one at Best Buy, Costco, Wal-Mart, or Target. How much more mainstream do you need to get?

All that being said, I sure would like to see Apple do some spots that REALLY drive home the fact that you spent most of your time on a Mac actually getting "work" done, not maintaining the system. Why do people think is it normal to spend so much time on PM for a computer? Would you want to own a car that needed as much preventative maintenance as a Windows PC just to stay in top form?

 

[Chaszmyr]

Apple has done nothing but gain steam since Steve Jobs returned to the company... Why are there even still any talks about Apple going out of business any time soon?

 

[V.A.Toss]

They wont die.

They wont die.

Firstly this sort of question has been floating around the macintosh and IT scene for over 13 years now. It has been floating around the rumour sites for over 5 as far as i know. And every1 has predicted their death. But theyre not dead.

They wont die simply because their market share is too solid. Mac users are rarely pushed into buying PC. They just wont accept windows. PCs just arent made with the quality that macs are, theyre not designed but put together, and they dont run quite as smoothly if you use them intensely. They may be faster, have more varied software, and be in larger supply, but at the end of the day the mac community and mac users value the quality of the macintosh too much.

Apple concentrates on "content creation", and PCs will never be able to do this as well as the macintosh. Infact there is no one else that comes close to apple with this. So there is no threat to the (apparent) 4% market share.

Even when moto had apple stuck at 500mhz for an entire year whilst the PC ran away to 1.2Ghz, their market share still held at around 3%. Just because you cant put a price on quality. If that had happened to say, Dell, they would have gone bust within 3 months.
So although they must only have a 4% market share, its actually the strongest of all market shares.

Infact even if apple wanted to die, they would find it difficult.
If they were going to die then they would have by now. Certainly they wont die any time soon as this is one of their strongest 12 months in history, its a far cry from the dark days of the moto 7400 and the cube. Apple has alot to thank IBM and the G5 for, its brought credibility back to the mac, and is getting major attention from hardcore PC users. Simply because of its power.


For apple to eat into the PC market they need to improve in 3 areas; speed, value for money and availability of software. Three things fairly simple to achieve, and certainly not beyond apples capability.

For PCs to eat into Apples market they have to improve 1 thing; quality. And that IS beyond a PCs capability. There are too many different PC components, and windows just isnt written or designed well enough for this to ever happen.

That 4% market share is awfully strong when you think about it a little.

 

[SiliconAddict]

F.

U.

D.

All figures show that Apple's machine sales are up year over year, quarter over quarter, and that the iPod revenues are about the same as copies of OS X sold aside from machines. It's not at all the major saving grace that PC trolls try to make it out to be.

For a company that's reliant on third party hardware, it sure seems odd that the iPod sales didn't explode, but the profits did. Apple posted a $61 million profit last quarter, up roughly $40 million.

What happened? The iMac G5 did, for one.

And what % of those sales was based on iPod sales? iPod is a large contributor to keeping Apple afloat.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/07/14/numbers/?lsrc=mcrss-0704

iPods had another record quarter -- 860,000 iPods and iPod minis were sold during the quarter

Apple sold a total of 876,000 CPUs for the quarter.

Now obviously the only reason Apple computers are making more is 1. They are a larger consumer product. 2. Apple is making a KILLING on these systems. But that doesn't change the fact that the computer side of things do make more then the iPod. But LOOK. Seriously LOOK at the figures in the above link.

183 percent increase year over year.

No way in hell is the computer side growing nearly as fast. It may take 2 more years but iPod is in line to overtake Apple's computer sales assuming they can maintain that growth.
So don't give me this FUD crap. The iPod is sustaining Apple in some realms. Even from a stock point of view do you think investors eyes are going to light up at:

14 percent increase in total units sold year over year

or again:

183 percent increase year over year.

This all comes back to numbers. The iPod isn't raking in more money but they are selling faster then Mac. They are selling more computers....

Apple sold a total of 876,000 CPUs for the quarter

but not.....

iPods had another record quarter -- 860,000 iPods and iPod minis were sold during the quarter

by a whole heck of a lot more.

 

[irmongoose]

The iPod is a trend. The Mac is a way of life.

This nonsense about Apple going down, gaming, and the iPod bores me.

I'm sleepy.



irmongoose

 

[SiliconAddict]

They wont die.

I agree. Never let it be said that I think they are going to die.

For PCs to eat into Apples market they have to improve 1 thing; quality. And that IS beyond a PCs capability. There are too many different PC components, and windows just isnt written or designed well enough for this to ever happen.

Hehe. Dude no offense but you've been sipping too much of the Apple juice.
Quality? You are kidding right?!? OK. Lets look at Apple quality. Note these are just off the top of my head:

Hardware:
-fan issues with first gen G5 PowerMac's
-Rusting on first gen TI Powerbooks in the palm rail.
-Paint flecking on the AL (Or was that the TI? Which one was painted?) PowerBooks?
-White spots on 15" PowerBook screens.
-Bad latches on various AL/TI PowerBooks.
-Bad system boards on a TON of iBooks (I know for a fact I have a VERY irate friend who has had his system board replaced 4 times now since September of last year. Dude is seriously pissed at Apple.)
-Crashing iPod's left and right. (I know 9 people that have ipods. (Of which 5 are 3rd gen, and 3 are 2nd, 1 is 1st.) Of those 4 have had their iPods in for repairs. 1 was unlucky enough to have theirs in 3 or 4 times in the last 2 years. Sorry for the slathering of facts.)
-Battery recall on the 15" PowerBook no more then 2 weeks ago

Software:
-10.2.8 Enough said
-10.3 How many people lost their data because of the filevault issue?
-10.3 Firewire drives. Enough said.
-[insert various update that was available on Mac Update then was mysteriously pulled for no reason because it did "bad things"]

Phone based customer service:
-A complete and total joke. Browse the forums and see how many people are NOT happy with Apple customer support. I know that the above friend who had the system board fry on his iBook got serious cases of the run around on multiple instances. From what he told me it degraded into chaos after a while. (Not the calmest person on the planet.) He ended up taking his iBook to the MoA Apple Store where his experience was drastically better.


Look. I want to like Apple. When I started looking at the Mac Spring of 03 as a viable alternative to the PC I went in thinking well gosh this is going to be a flawless experience. Maybe I had a taste of the Apple juice at some point thinking that because after spending a year on the boards reading, watching, browsing I'm not seeing that rosy paradise. I'm seeing a company just as flawed as MS in some ways and kicks the crap out of them in others and to dismiss that is to bury your head in the sand. I don't do that with MS products and I'll be danged if I'm going to with Apple, or anyone else for that matter.

 

[thatwendigo]

And what % of those sales was based on iPod sales? iPod is a large contributor to keeping Apple afloat.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/07/14/numbers/?lsrc=mcrss-0704

Well, let's do a little math.

The total revenue from computer sales:
iMacs and eMacs - 243,000 units for $235 million ($967 average revenue)
iBooks - 240,000 untis for $261 million ($1,087 average revenue)
PowerBooks - 220,000 units for $435 million ($1,977 average revenue)
PowerMacs and Xserves - 173,000 units for $332 million ($1,919 average revenue)

Total CPU sales: $1,263,000,000
Total units: 876,000
Average overal revenue per unit: $1,441


Total revenue from iPod sales:
iPods - 860,000 units for $249 million ($289 average revenue)

Assuming that Apple achieves continued linear growth at the last rate (183%), it will take at least three years of almost doubling the current sales (or some 5,270,000 ipods per quarter in Q3 2007) to equal CPU sales and start to actually be the "saving grace" of Apple. By contrast, if Apple maintains a linear growth on their CPU sales, the same Q3 2007 figures would yield $1.871 billion on an increase of actual units that would total a mere 1.297 million units that quarter, which is a comparatively svelte 30% increase. Keep in mind that the same revenue in iPods would require increasing production elevenfold just to match where they are right now, and that's on revenues and not profits. I'd bet Apple makes a much fatter margin on the computers than the iPods.

But LOOK. Seriously LOOK at the figures in the above link.

Take your own advice.

This all comes back to numbers. The iPod isn't raking in more money but they are selling faster then Mac. They are selling more computers.... but not..... by a whole heck of a lot more.

They make "a whole heck of a lot more" money from computers than iPods, and that's what matters. There would be no iPod without the money from the macintosh market.

 

[maxvamp]

SiliconAddict

Most here have made many of the points I wanted to say, but I will try to pull two of your stats in perspective....

If you had 40% of the total market share selling $500 computers where you made >$50 on each, would you be better off than a company than a company that had 4% of the market share but made $1500 computers and made < $500 on each machine?

Would you rather compete against 15 -> 20 people or 1 -> 2 people when writing software? What would be the marketing pressures, and forced quality and technology standards needed to survive in each market?

From what I have typically seen in the past is that a company will establish a well known product on one platform, and later migrate to the commodity market that is windows. At that point, piracy, and margins come back into play.

Apple is too fat. It is not going anywhere with $5B in cash and a $40 stock price.

Max.

 

[V.A.Toss]

I agree. Never let it be said that I think they are going to die.




Hehe. Dude no offense but you've been sipping too much of the Apple juice.
Quality? You are kidding right?!? OK. Lets look at Apple quality. Note these are just off the top of my head:

Hardware:
-fan issues with first gen G5 PowerMac's
-Rusting on first gen TI Powerbooks in the palm rail.
-Paint flecking on the AL (Or was that the TI? Which one was painted?) PowerBooks?
-White spots on 15" PowerBook screens.
-Bad latches on various AL/TI PowerBooks.
-Bad system boards on a TON of iBooks (I know for a fact I have a VERY irate friend who has had his system board replaced 4 times now since September of last year. Dude is seriously pissed at Apple.)
-Crashing iPod's left and right. (I know 9 people that have ipods. (Of which 5 are 3rd gen, and 3 are 2nd, 1 is 1st.) Of those 4 have had their iPods in for repairs. 1 was unlucky enough to have theirs in 3 or 4 times in the last 2 years. Sorry for the slathering of facts.)
-Battery recall on the 15" PowerBook no more then 2 weeks ago

Software:
-10.2.8 Enough said
-10.3 How many people lost their data because of the filevault issue?
-10.3 Firewire drives. Enough said.
-[insert various update that was available on Mac Update then was mysteriously pulled for no reason because it did "bad things"]

Phone based customer service:
-A complete and total joke. Browse the forums and see how many people are NOT happy with Apple customer support. I know that the above friend who had the system board fry on his iBook got serious cases of the run around on multiple instances. From what he told me it degraded into chaos after a while. (Not the calmest person on the planet.) He ended up taking his iBook to the MoA Apple Store where his experience was drastically better.


Look. I want to like Apple. When I started looking at the Mac Spring of 03 as a viable alternative to the PC I went in thinking well gosh this is going to be a flawless experience. Maybe I had a taste of the Apple juice at some point thinking that because after spending a year on the boards reading, watching, browsing I'm not seeing that rosy paradise. I'm seeing a company just as flawed as MS in some ways and kicks the crap out of them in others and to dismiss that is to bury your head in the sand. I don't do that with MS products and I'll be danged if I'm going to with Apple, or anyone else for that matter.

Ah, a coherent response. Nice to see.
Firstly, sorry im not a mac zealot. I use a PC a PC laptop and a mac laptop. And i dont buy the marketing crap apple sells. My offerings are based purely on experience.

Well you have a point about apples quality control, those mostly are flaws that should have been ironed out WELL before the release.
But you have to compare this with the utter horror stories from DELL, Time, Tiny etc.
Yeah, macs have flaws, design problems. But your looking at glitches that apply to a small percentage of their users. Your not looking at how each and every machine is put together.

If i look at glitches from the PC world i should see roughly the same number:

XP SP1 failing to fix bugs.
XP SP2 failing to increase security, and bug fixes.
Should i bother mentioning windows ME? that was hell.
DELL power supplies
Time PCs socketA motherboards going pop after 13 months use. (conveniently just out of warranty....hmmmmm)
VIA northbridge chipsets not accepting certain radeon, and earlier matrox cards.
Archos 20gb jukebox HDs die.
Samsung Yepps have battery covers that crack and fall off, and circuitry that wants to short out. Oh, and volume control buttons that enjoy doing what they want.
Toshiba 2250XCDS LCD screen problems

....to name but a few. You wont hear about alot of these problems because they just dont get reported, it wud be much easier to report a problem from apple which is a centralised company with a reputation for quality.

But these glitches affect roughly the same proportion of their respective line of computer. Not much difference between mac and PC here.

You have to avoid looking at inevitable glitches, but look at the problems that affect every machine in the line.

Take this as an example, if you open up a Dell box, take off the heatsink and look underneath you wont see thermal paste. Youll see what resembles chewing gum. Now ordinarily this is a minor problem, but as the PC cpu is running at 45 degrees in most cases, it is ever so slightly more than a worry.
Now this isnt a problem affecting some, it will affect every PC in that line DELL makes until the motherboard finally shorts.

You wouldnt find that magnitude of problem affecting every mac in a line of macs. Infact i cant think of one. Apart from the noise of the first dual 2.0Ghz G5. And after hearing it at my local KRCS store i can honestly say my athlon box is louder when its asleep.

So, sorry i have to disagree.

The fact is, for years the publishing industry has used macs despite Quark and indesign being available on faster PCs. Why? because they know that after intensive work their macs wont crash, wont have design flaws that they have to replace an entire office, and wont have the driver problems windows PCs are plagued with.
Same could be said for most in graphics design, and a large percentage of 3D design.

In my experience anyway; macs offer quality, PCs offer better price/performance. Thats why i use both.

nice to see another opinion though

 

[0490043]

When was the last time you saw an ad for any of Apple's computers?

Watch a movie or TV show. All the people are using Macs. Product placement is more effective then TV ads.

 

[Blue Velvet]

Watch a movie or TV show. All the people are using Macs. Product placement is more effective then TV ads.

True. Just tonight I was watching 'Six Feet Under'
(3rd series, first UK terrestial showing)

There was a scene where one of the characters was doing something in her college... in room full of G4 iMacs!

In fact, the scene started with a slow tracking shot from one of these machines... you can't buy this sort of product placement.

(Unless they are buying that sort of product placement)

 

[Dr. Dastardly]

Watch a movie or TV show. All the people are using Macs. Product placement is more effective then TV ads.

Agreed, in fact there are so many that a few of my friends play spot the mac as a drinking game.

 

[scan300]

No. You really don't get it. Market shares DO matter to a software developer.

No, the size your own piece of a particular market is what matters to a developer, not the market share of an OS. The factors that define your market are the number of customers, how many products will a customer buy, competition in your market place, ability to service the market place and ability to promote your product to the market place.

There are only a handful of players who can monopolise the greater share of the computer industry. The rest work in marginal, specialised markets and their market place is much smaller.

In this argument about Apple's survivability, it's market share of the whole PC market is irrelevant, so long as Apple is still a growing market. You just have to look at the success of the Apple Developers Conference year after year [read - more developers are coming on board] to see it is a strong market place.

Many developers don't port their software to Mac because they're forced to by some unkown Darth Vader, they port because there is a money making opportunity, regardless of market percentage.

Microsoft still develops for Mac and Apple continues to bridge the gap to Windows making them more interoperable in a networked environment. This erodes the argument that Macs can't operate in a Windows world. In fact the business of bridging the gap is a market in itself.

Mac has also opened a new market in the Unix world and there are plenty of Unix developers jumping on board.

Hell even Apple makes money developing for the Mac platform.

 

[earthtoandy]

apple is stronger than ever and only getting better... this question is coming at an odd time.

 

[Grokgod]

Apple is doing better than EVER!

Not going to DIE, not even get sick.

Now ofcourse there have been design flaws or tech problems along the way.
But as others have said these things exist in the Pc world also!

But I never have the OS horror stories that used to happen in Windows.
I mean, I hate even typing that word,. better to say Winblows, more true.

I switched because I saw that i spent TOO much time
working on my OS.

Updates, drivers, Bios, Defrags, Registries, Security Holes, etc
and every 6 months reinstalling windows to get a fix that couldnt be fixed any other way.

I have never been more productive and now really enjoy the experience.

That is what APPLE sells, a productive experience.

iPod sales do not mean the death of Apple computers they mean an expansion of the Apple world, revolving around the digital hub.

This is the era of Apple more than ever, and with the G5 getting ready for the Powerbooks, which need a revamp.
There is a true promise of Apple achieving all that it has promised.

Apple's software has been integrated so well together forming a truely inspiration experience for the general user.

I think that computer sales will improve!
I switch people often!

 

[earthtoandy]

yeah the iPod is the opposite of what it should be... the iPod has led to more Apple awareness and led to many switchers along the way and the number grows. Apple is around for good.