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Sorry to burst everyones bubbles, but there are two main reasons for the increase in market share in the last few months:

First, the consumer purchasing season.

Second, most corporations have been holding off on their hardware purchases untill Vista SP 1 which is soon to be released.

I wouldn't be surprised if you see Apple's market share fall to 5% or lower for a month or two while corporations start making large purchases of updated hardware and consumer purchasing falls off in the spring.

If they're replacing hardware, wouldn't the impact on market share be the same as if they just kept the old hardware?
 
I hope that was a joke :) But in case it wasn't...

Virus writers are not ignoring OS X at all. Going down in history as the creator of the first "real" virus for OS X is more than enough to get people trying. It hasn't happened because OS X is relatively secure and has sensible default services running.

You are living in the dreamworld.

First of all, OSX is as full of exploitable bugs as any other OS out there. The bigger the code the bigger number of bugs, there is NO bug-free code out there. Look at iPhone which runs OSX and its hacks.

Secondly, Windows is fairly secure OS by itself today, one of the main infection mechanisms today are viruses which are DELIBERATELY executed by idiots using computers. People become very stupid when you promise them a x-mas e-card or naked pics. Trust me, they will input their password and give the virus full root access to OSX.
 
I, too, am still a PC user (since the dark, er, DOS days), but come January 15th (and hell, high water, or no new Mac Pro news), I *will* be buying my first Mac.

Frankly, I'm just sick and tired of "dealing" with Windows. I'm a Linux user from way back ('92 or '93), so the UNIX underpinnings of OS X interest me. Not having to deal with viruses and spyware (or the CPU-sucking cycles of software needed to prevent them) is a huge plus, as well as my recent change in focus on using the computer to begin with (i.e. I've taken up using Photoshop and Lightroom as some of the main things I do with my computer - I don't really play games anymore, except for MAME, which I know is available for the Mac.)

I also consider a Mac an actual investment because of the cost (Mac Pro = big $$$), but it's a machine I won't likely need to upgrade for many years (especially with 8 cores...even Photoshop CS3 doesn't take advantage of THAT many yet, I don't think.) -- With a PC, you can buy the components cheap and get some good deals, but at the end of the useful life, you either make incremental upgrades or (more likely) just throw the damned thing away (or sell it to a friend for a few bucks - that's all it's worth.)

Macs, on the other hand, have (what I've seen) relatively crazy resale value, where you might actually make back nearly half of your original cost (sometimes slightly more) if it's a good system, loaded with features (and RAM.))

So I can't wait...only 2 more weeks until I'll be ordering my new system!

-Bryan
 
I, too, am still a PC user (since the dark, er, DOS days), but come January 15th (and hell, high water, or no new Mac Pro news), I *will* be buying my first Mac.

Frankly, I'm just sick and tired of "dealing" with Windows. I'm a Linux user from way back ('92 or '93), so the UNIX underpinnings of OS X interest me. Not having to deal with viruses and spyware (or the CPU-sucking cycles of software needed to prevent them) is a huge plus, as well as my recent change in focus on using the computer to begin with (i.e. I've taken up using Photoshop and Lightroom as some of the main things I do with my computer - I don't really play games anymore, except for MAME, which I know is available for the Mac.)

I also consider a Mac an actual investment because of the cost (Mac Pro = big $$$), but it's a machine I won't likely need to upgrade for many years (especially with 8 cores...even Photoshop CS3 doesn't take advantage of THAT many yet, I don't think.) -- With a PC, you can buy the components cheap and get some good deals, but at the end of the useful life, you either make incremental upgrades or (more likely) just throw the damned thing away (or sell it to a friend for a few bucks - that's all it's worth.)

Macs, on the other hand, have (what I've seen) relatively crazy resale value, where you might actually make back nearly half of your original cost (sometimes slightly more) if it's a good system, loaded with features (and RAM.))

So I can't wait...only 2 more weeks until I'll be ordering my new system!

-Bryan

:) Congrats, I always get excited when we get a new member of the family :)
 
Sorry to burst everyones bubbles, but there are two main reasons for the increase in market share in the last few months:

First, the consumer purchasing season.

Gee, that's funny. They didn't have over 7% market share last Christmas. :rolleyes:
 
TO THE ADMINS:

Which market share? USA? Worldwide? It is not the same. Thanks.
 
I agree we will never see Apple with 50% market share. But with the kind of company Apple has become in the last 6 or 7 years, I am sure they could take care of any demand that comes. As long as that demand is organic in nature, as it is currently.

Apple only has to dominate the smartphone industry and that 50% does not look too out of reach. The next generation of smart phones will effectively be 'proper' computers, this year the line between mobile/computer will be blurred .

FAR more Mobiles than Computers are sold. And the mobile industry will be a pushover for apple.
 
Apple will be the next Microsoft soon. :(

debbie_downer.jpg


Man, I wanna party with you so bad. :rolleyes:
 
I have to agree with other posters that Apple will not reach 50% market share.
Those net numbers include enterprise.

Also, Apple will never get a large market share with the current pricing structure. Apple will hit a ceiling at some point, and I predict it will be about 15% or so.

As long as consumers can get sub-$500 desktops from Wal-Mart or whereever and build HP 17" laptops that have as much as a MacBook Pro for $1500 less, Apple's market share will stagnate at some point. It's a luxury computer.

Besides, I don't want it to get too big of a market share; it will take away some of the "magic".

The iPhone will effectively and eventually be Apple's sub $500 computer.
 
Sorry to burst everyones bubbles, but there are two main reasons for the increase in market share in the last few months:

First, the consumer purchasing season.

Second, most corporations have been holding off on their hardware purchases untill Vista SP 1 which is soon to be released.

I wouldn't be surprised if you see Apple's market share fall to 5% or lower for a month or two while corporations start making large purchases of updated hardware and consumer purchasing falls off in the spring.

Thanks for the insightful analysis, Mr. Ballmer. I'd ask you to remind us of all those reasons the iPhone will fail but I don't want any chairs flying around. :D
 
Apple only has to dominate the smartphone industry and that 50% does not look too out of reach. The next generation of smart phones will effectively be 'proper' computers, this year the line between mobile/computer will be blurred .

FAR more Mobiles than Computers are sold. And the mobile industry will be a pushover for apple.

I doubt whether Apple will ever hit 50% smartphone marketshare. Whilst Apple does exclusivity with carriers, there's no way that iPhone will get above 10%. At the moment, there are two other barriers - upfront high cost of phone AND high contract prices. But you say, the iPod still got successful despite its high price? Yes, it did, but cell phones are in a different market - people don't want to pay $$$ upfront with high contract price on top.

Anyway, 7% marketshare is great, but Apple still needs much more!
 
Well, i'm not a MAC user yet. Still waiting on news from the EXPO in Jan. That being said.... i've owned 3 Dell Computers since 1996. Ive never had an issue with the computers or customer service in all that time. Top end components at great prices and plenty of choices when building them.

The Dell i use now is 4 yrs old and can play almost any game with ease, and thats using an AGP card.

So why am i looking at Apple? Well i'm since my Dell is handling the few games i play and i'm not too heavy of a gamer, i want a computer that offers me a more friendly OS and better software for music, video etc.

Vista has been very disappointing to me. I don't want to buy another Dell because i feel Vista is not the upgrade or direction i want to go in at this time. If Vista was really nice and offered a bunch of innovative changes...i probably wouldnt be here talking with you all. But thats not the case.

A friend of mine has been trying to get me to switch for yrs and i own 2 ipods that i really enjoy. I like apple products but in the past ...... they couldnt match what i could purchase from Dell for the price.

With the addition of Intel Chips and better hardware, that gap has closed in my mind. I might have bought an IMAC this Christmas if it wasnt for the half-ass vid card they ship with it. I know i'm not getting a mac for gaming, but they definately can throw us a bone and upgrade that card.

So now, since i don't know of any proposed changes to upgrade the IMAC, I'm leaning towards the Mac Pro Notebook. Its alot of $$$ , but i feel its more justified than the IMAC.

So whats my main pt? You know Apple is making the right moves if it can swing a guy like me who has had no issues with Dell's for 12 yrs. So kudos to u Apple users. I hope i can join you sometime this yr with my first Apple computer purchase. I think your a great community and can't wait till they release the MAC that just makes me think "bingo !" .

Cheers.

What a great post. You will enjoy your Macs (I pluralize as there will be more ...).

One thing I always think is that I'd rather have both a MacBook and an iMac for the same $s as a high end MacBook Pro unless I really had to have that much power when on the road.

However I agree on video card for iMac too. I have long used high end Mac Desktops but to be honest I would get to an iMac with the big screen but for that. Perhaps that's the reason Apple keep it held back but frankly the CPU differences in the high end desktops should be enough to differentiate the two lines so please Apple let's have a kick ass video card in a high end iMac as an option :)
 
Steve Jobs: "Intel processors provide more performance per watt than PowerPC."

My G4 (Digital Audio) tower was debuted at MacWorld 2001. I ordered it from the Apple Store the day after it debuted. I'm running 10.4.11 and the computer still works fine on its 8th birthday. (I am glad I skipped the liquid cooled G5 towers. My understanding is there has been a good bit of trouble with some of those).

Not many G5s were water cooled from what I remember, only the later ones. Just for the record my original Dual 2 GHz G5 is still running round the clock with the latest Leopard. Not a single hardware issue in the 7 years (I think that's right ...) I have had it.
 
Not many G5s were water cooled from what I remember, only the later ones. Just for the record my original Dual 2 GHz G5 is still running round the clock with the latest Leopard. Not a single hardware issue in the 7 years (I think that's right ...) I have had it.


Well, not all of us have good memories and/or good in math :), but when you said 7 years, the 7 years rang a bell. My G4 is 7 years old this month and the G5 model introduction was a few years down the road. Your G5 dual 2.0 started shipping in Sept. of 2003.

I normally don't go this long between computer purchases, but I was ready to buy a G5 in the Summer of 2005, but then Jobs announced the shift to Intel. When the Mac Pro came out in August of 2006, I decided to wait until Rev. B (?) of the Mac Pro and here I sit. Do I NEED an Apple tower's power? No, but I like to be able to add my own memory and hard drives and to "look under the hood" whenever I like without having to take the case apart with tools.
 
I hope your joking. How many security updates were their last year for OS X? ... you do know that by default the OS X firewall isn't even on.

Anything can be hacked. Don't go for this "We are safer" because you will end up eating those words sooner or later.

I hope that was a joke :) But in case it wasn't...

Virus writers are not ignoring OS X at all. Going down in history as the creator of the first "real" virus for OS X is more than enough to get people trying. It hasn't happened because OS X is relatively secure and has sensible default services running.
 
For the record, Apple DOESN'T build its own hardware it designs it and farms it off to Foxconn and other Asian manufacturers who then manufacture it so to go from 2.6 million units per quarter currently to say 5million units per quarter would just require planning and ramping up the manufacturing process followed by the same again to go from 5 million Macs per quarter to 7.5million Macs per quarter this time next year.

Yes it DOES. Although, alot of it is farmed out.
 
Sometimes I see Apple computers in adverts and such, but the Apple logos and writing have all been airbrushed off, as if its some brandless computer.

Is this because the advertisers don't want to work with Apple, or is it Apple who wants to remain anonymous?

In these commercials or TV programs, Apple has no involvement, the production company is just using the machine it sees as most aesthetically pleasing, generally anywhere the logo is covered it is more about the design. But I'm guessing it does have a good effect on Apple as there are not many similar machines, designed so.
 
Hrmz... Honestly, the data doesn't say that much. First of all, how is marketshare measured? Of consumers? Coorps? Usa? World?

Second, what I really wonder is what percentage of hardware was replaced during the period of the 1% market increase. If, say, 2% was replaced, then the 50% of all hardware sold were macs. If, assuming a two month period for the 1% increase and an average lifetime of a pc of 3 years, then ca. 6% of the computers was replaced. The 1% percent increase then means that roughly one in six of all computers sold were macs. Which is massive.

Anyway, without data on the "replacement rate" over that period, the numbers don't say that much.
 
Hrmz... Honestly, the data doesn't say that much. First of all, how is marketshare measured? Of consumers? Coorps? Usa? World?

Anyway, without data on the "replacement rate" over that period, the numbers don't say that much.

Two people have asked this now, and I don't understand how you can read the article and not know the answer.

It is web site visitors to a broad sample of web sites. Period.
 
Two people have asked this now, and I don't understand how you can read the article and not know the answer.

It is web site visitors to a broad sample of web sites. Period.

Does the site have any data on the replacement rate of hardware/computers over that period? IE, what percentage of computers got replaced by a new machine in that period. I couldn't find it that easily, but that could be me.
 
Can you give me an example because I'm drawing a blank. Other than access to Westlaw, I can't think of anything else you need. And technically speaking, you don't even really need a computer at all if you have access to a law library.

Well, okay. I use Macs for my practice, but I do that by working around some limitations and using Bootcamp/Parallels as needed. But most of the law practice management software used today -- things like ProLaw or Amicus Attorney -- are Window-only. Even worse, they interwork only with MS Office products and protocols. Also, they interwork with WordPerfect as that's actually the platform used still by many attorneys and law offices. Hot Docs and ProDoc live on Windows PCs, to say nothing of the billing software that gets lawyers paid.

As things become web-based (Westlaw, Lexis), it gets easier to do this work in OS X. But the problem is that as some of the more popular case management software heads to the web, it's done under the .NET framework and is not open/standards compliant.

And even if you hung out all day at the law library, you couldn't practice law today without some kind of computer in your office. Courts require certain font types, sizes, and other formatting that the good ol' IBM Selectric just isn't capable of rendering.

All of that said, I'm glad to see Apple gaining market share. We shouldn't look down our noses at people who use Apple hardware and software, but sometimes have to do so with a session of Windows running in a virtual machine. ;)
 
Quote from the original article:
However, the really good news for Apple came at the end of the month. For the last two days of December, Apple had the following numbers:

December 30-31 Share:
Mac (all lines) 8.01%
iPhone .17%
 
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