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Mac Market Share Update
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All this talk about market share is meaningless. It's the growth of the company that counts. Imagine a small company like Apple that ocasionally is valued at more than Dell. Why sell a Mac for $400 when, as one previous poster noted, when Apple can sell them for $1300? I have been hearing the last chance gloom and doom for Apple for years and short of Steve Jobs leaving I don't see it happening.
The only advantage to a larger market share that I can see would be more variety in applications, but I think that most users are prettty happy with what's available now. After all, how many office suites, movie/photo/graphic editing apps, and web browsers does one need? I believe the percentages sold to home users is much higher than Apple's measured market share each quarter and I don't think these users are as "sophisticated" as the average MacRumors user. For example, my daughter is tickled-pink with her iMac because she can get online and it always just works.
The only advantage to a larger market share that I can see would be more variety in applications, but I think that most users are prettty happy with what's available now. After all, how many office suites, movie/photo/graphic editing apps, and web browsers does one need? I believe the percentages sold to home users is much higher than Apple's measured market share each quarter and I don't think these users are as "sophisticated" as the average MacRumors user. For example, my daughter is tickled-pink with her iMac because she can get online and it always just works.
Silencio said:
I'm sorry, the vast majority of the us will not care and will never care what a G4, G5, Yonah, Conroe etc. are. Yes, there is a small group of people who knows what these codenames mean, and I take it that you are one. And you think everyone should know of this before buying a computer.
lets face it, running multiple OSes on one machine that requires rebooting is not going to fly with 99.9% of the pop. Running XP as a window in OSX seemlessly may just be appealing to a few of us. Again I don't see this virtualization fix going big, because we the end user don't have a compelling reason to do so.
Time for Apple to pull its finger out!!
Yep - that's what will sell Mac's. Just wait until Leopard is released with full virtualisation technology inbuilt into the OS. Imagine the TV ad, just in time for the xmas season. It will be an iMac running all OS's on one screen with a slogan. How does "The Mac runs everything - out of the box. Why buy anything else? " sound??
It is about time Apple makes a mainstream hit with their new Intel tech promoting this type of versatility. Only time will tell. This year will be a big one for Apple.
aussie_geek
BlizzardBomb said:
Yep - that's what will sell Mac's. Just wait until Leopard is released with full virtualisation technology inbuilt into the OS. Imagine the TV ad, just in time for the xmas season. It will be an iMac running all OS's on one screen with a slogan. How does "The Mac runs everything - out of the box. Why buy anything else? " sound??
It is about time Apple makes a mainstream hit with their new Intel tech promoting this type of versatility. Only time will tell. This year will be a big one for Apple.
aussie_geek
re: Market Share
the only people that care about market share are financial analysts.
i could look at those results and go "hey, did you know nearly 9 out of 10 people who own computers *do NOT own a Dell*?
but imagine, if you will a meeting at Ferrari:
Luigi: Listen, we gotta up our market share. we got likea what, .24%?
Marco: Well, it's more like .15%.
Luigi: What?! how we gonna corner the auto market with number like that?
Marco: ...Corner the market?
Luigi: Yeah! why else would we be in the car business?
Marco: uh...to make high-quality, high-performance, legendary machines?
Luigi: fu*$ that! we gotta compete with Ford!
Marco: FORD? Luigi, you gone-a crazy!
the only people that care about market share are financial analysts.
i could look at those results and go "hey, did you know nearly 9 out of 10 people who own computers *do NOT own a Dell*?
but imagine, if you will a meeting at Ferrari:
Luigi: Listen, we gotta up our market share. we got likea what, .24%?
Marco: Well, it's more like .15%.
Luigi: What?! how we gonna corner the auto market with number like that?
Marco: ...Corner the market?
Luigi: Yeah! why else would we be in the car business?
Marco: uh...to make high-quality, high-performance, legendary machines?
Luigi: fu*$ that! we gotta compete with Ford!
Marco: FORD? Luigi, you gone-a crazy!
Cinch said:
You don't need to [know] what CPU is in the machine. Intel's selection of CPUs will allow Apple to make machines they haven't been able to make before, if they so choose: think $700 iBook-like entry level laptop running a single-core, low-voltage Yonah; a sub-$1,000 business grade desktop with internal expansion capabilities running a single-core Conroe; a >4 pound midrange subnotebook running a low-voltage Merom. They couldn't come close to doing those things with the G4 and the G5, but they could conceivably do it with Intel's products.
So it looks like Apple is growing with the industry which is great news.Macrumors said:
And it looks like it will continue to grow with the Intel Macs.
Note, these figures do not take into account installed base. Government and big business upgrade on a 3-5 year cycle which account for a huge amount of sales.
Cinch said:
So, a wireless internet connection is slower than the business-class ethernet connection that you have at work? I think that pretty much explains the difference between the computers you used.
Even if Safari were slower than IE, you don't have to use Safari on a Mac. There are many other options including Firefox and Opera (I use Firefox which is fast and set to get even faster with version 2.0).
As someone who does quite a bit of web design work on a PC at work all day, I can attest that on the same computer (a fairly new Dell with a connection to Internet2 through our local network) IE runs noticeably slower (usually about one-third to one-half) than Firefox. It is also the least secure and and least interoperable of the major browsers out there. Our recommendation is that people don't use it to access sensitive/private information.
Time is not running out as long as Apple remains Microschlocks R&D department.
Innovation is always at the cutting edge. People who go for newer or untested products are always the minority. We are at the moment in that phase, the great unwashed masses will get there eventually.
Personally I wouldnt mind Apple staying at 5% but who knows? I dont recall the breakdown of the PC growth in those figures. Remember, Apple doesnt have any share of the corporate world...until that happens, there is no point to this argument.
Peace out.
Innovation is always at the cutting edge. People who go for newer or untested products are always the minority. We are at the moment in that phase, the great unwashed masses will get there eventually.
Personally I wouldnt mind Apple staying at 5% but who knows? I dont recall the breakdown of the PC growth in those figures. Remember, Apple doesnt have any share of the corporate world...until that happens, there is no point to this argument.
Peace out.
Mac Fly (film) said:
Same here (I switched because of an iPod)...my sister got an iPod Mini, and I got an iRiver.
Nine months later...well, you get the idea
This doesn't fly with me...
Anecdotally, I had one Mac-using friend in 2000 -- just ONE. Today, I have five in roughly the same group of friends, not counting myself (2001 switcher). Another one is planning to switch in the next year.
In 2001, I worked part time for the company I'm at now -- a government contracting firm. Not a single employee was a Mac user then. I returned to the company in 2004 (full time) and there were about five (again, not counting myself). I know of another 4 who have switched since then and another 2 planning to do so soon.
When I started at George Mason University in 2000, I only saw ONE Mac that I recall in the entire school year (my roommate's iMac -- the same one friend from my first comment). I came back the next year with my new Power Mac, and started seeing occasional PowerBooks around campus. The year after that, iBooks and PowerBooks probably made up about 15-20% of the notebooks I saw around campus.
I know this is all anecdotal, but a 'no market share growth' statement doesn't jibe at all with the reality I see around me. I would believe a .5 or 1 percentage point increase (though even that seems too low to me), but I don't believe for a second that there's been no growth.
Anecdotally, I had one Mac-using friend in 2000 -- just ONE. Today, I have five in roughly the same group of friends, not counting myself (2001 switcher). Another one is planning to switch in the next year.
In 2001, I worked part time for the company I'm at now -- a government contracting firm. Not a single employee was a Mac user then. I returned to the company in 2004 (full time) and there were about five (again, not counting myself). I know of another 4 who have switched since then and another 2 planning to do so soon.
When I started at George Mason University in 2000, I only saw ONE Mac that I recall in the entire school year (my roommate's iMac -- the same one friend from my first comment). I came back the next year with my new Power Mac, and started seeing occasional PowerBooks around campus. The year after that, iBooks and PowerBooks probably made up about 15-20% of the notebooks I saw around campus.
I know this is all anecdotal, but a 'no market share growth' statement doesn't jibe at all with the reality I see around me. I would believe a .5 or 1 percentage point increase (though even that seems too low to me), but I don't believe for a second that there's been no growth.
I have to echo the sentiment of some here. The market share just isn't likely to raise to any significant amount. The issue, as is for almost everything else in life, comes down to dollars and cents. As long as you can get a reasonable (performance wise) Windows computer, there's just no way for people to justify to make the switch. The main reason I bought mine was because I worked for Pixar and I got a good deal. And let me tell you a little secret, even at Pixar (a company owned by Jobs) they use HP's and some Dell's with Linux. Now, if that doesn't tell you something, nothing else will.
Best regards
Best regards
otter-boy said:
Okay, so I must apologize for not being clear. I wasn't comparing my T3 desktop computer connection to the MacBook wireless connection. The point still stand. Sluggish Safari performance whether it was its fault or not, it doen't matter. I'm not saying IE is great, but it is there. I tried Firefox, and didn't like it because it couldn't open up a few site that I tried.
However, I like your suggestion on security i.e. not using IE for sensitive/private surfing e.g. bank account inquiry.
Cinch
ulyssespdx said:
I was laughing so hard at this a fell out of my seat. Thats exactly what Iwas thinking
For all those that don't care about marketshare you got another thing coming to you.
Developers develop a lot more for Windows than Mac, and even when they develop for Mac, it is second class. Go buy a new printer or mouse--the driver is better for Windows than Mac.
Mac needs marketshare for the #1 reason being development.
Apple has taken two drastic measures in the last year: 1. Move to Intel; (2) Bootcamp.
This is a start, but they to take more drastic measures. I see 2 possibilites.:
1. Let OS X run on any current PC
2. Licensure of OS X
Now is a perfect time.
1) People are fed up with Microsoft and Vista delays
2) Vista is a clear copy of OS X, but still doesn't quite measure up.
3) The new IE 7 (?) sucks bigtime. Is a clear and pathetic copy of Camino and Firefox.
4) The new Office--Office 2007 sucks and will confuse the business world to Hell.
5) Microsoft has it's hands in too many pots and is focused on competing with Google and the iPod. They are fighting the wrong battles!
Which is better I don't know, but without trying this, the Mac is doomed. Apple of course is diversified and would still survive!
Developers develop a lot more for Windows than Mac, and even when they develop for Mac, it is second class. Go buy a new printer or mouse--the driver is better for Windows than Mac.
Mac needs marketshare for the #1 reason being development.
Apple has taken two drastic measures in the last year: 1. Move to Intel; (2) Bootcamp.
This is a start, but they to take more drastic measures. I see 2 possibilites.:
1. Let OS X run on any current PC
2. Licensure of OS X
Now is a perfect time.
1) People are fed up with Microsoft and Vista delays
2) Vista is a clear copy of OS X, but still doesn't quite measure up.
3) The new IE 7 (?) sucks bigtime. Is a clear and pathetic copy of Camino and Firefox.
4) The new Office--Office 2007 sucks and will confuse the business world to Hell.
5) Microsoft has it's hands in too many pots and is focused on competing with Google and the iPod. They are fighting the wrong battles!
Which is better I don't know, but without trying this, the Mac is doomed. Apple of course is diversified and would still survive!
ulyssespdx said:
I know the car analogy was going to come up sooner or later. Interestingly, the Best Buy story was the headline for today. Consider that Apple is trying get into the Best Buy audiance, I think the Ferrari and BMW analogies are pointless and hopelessly out of date.
Cinch
Just to be clear, Apple's market share didn't grow by .1%... For all we can tell, it grew from 3.54% to 3.55%..
It's good to see Apple hanging in there though. I'm most concerned by the fall in world market share. It seems to me that OSX is architected much better than Windows for non-English languages. Price is probably the killer here, but I'd still expect them to get a better foothold in Japan and Korea.
It's good to see Apple hanging in there though. I'm most concerned by the fall in world market share. It seems to me that OSX is architected much better than Windows for non-English languages. Price is probably the killer here, but I'd still expect them to get a better foothold in Japan and Korea.