Mac Marketshare Increasing

[inkswamp]

Don't mean to be a wet blanket, but I didn't care about Apple's market share when it was slipping in the 90s and I don't care about it now that it's climbing. I didn't buy my Mac to be popular and I don't particularly care that lots of people are (or are not) using them. It's just an irrelevant metric to me.

Apple produces very high quality machines and that's always going to ding them (ironically) in terms of market share as people will buy new machines less often and because loads of people aren't picking up bargain Macs at Wal-Mart. I know lots of Windows users and they buy new PCs on average every two years. I buy a new Mac on average every 5 years and most Mac users I know do the same. Market share is just meaningless, even when it's positive news.

Besides, Apple deals in the kind of quality that will keep it around for many, many years, regardless of which way its market share is going and that's all that I care about.

I can say that I predicted Apple would release software to dual boot an Intel Mac but without proof who would believe me?

Only if you were John C. Dvorak.

 

[theBB]

I didn't buy my Mac to be popular and I don't particularly care that lots of people are (or are not) using them. It's just an irrelevant metric to me.

Neither did I, but more market share means more software developers and more apps. That's the only reason I care.

 

[jonharris200]

I'm holding off until WWDC to decide what route of "Mac conversion" I am going to be using. If Leopard has a built in Parallels type solution (which I believe it will), then I will absolutely begin my church's mac conversion in January.

"my church's mac conversion". your church needs converting?

 

[macFanDave]

I find it odd that. . .

Although Apple is behind Gateway in market share, Apple's earnings (not revenue, earnings) last quarter (not year, quarter) is pretty close to Gateway's market capitalization!

 

[michaelrjohnson]

Although Apple is behind Gateway in market share, Apple's earnings (not revenue, earnings) last quarter (not year, quarter) is pretty close to Gateway's market capitalization!

They're behind Gateway in number of units shipped. Gateway produces and ships more units than Apple.

 

[shawnce]

schiller also said — i think the day before boot camp was announced — that apple wouldn't prevent users from putting windows on the intel macs, but they wouldn't facilitate it either.

Why do folks keep misquoting Schiller?

He said basically that Apple will not sell or support Windows but that they will not prevent users from installing and running Windows on MacIntels. Nothing in what Schiller stated had anything to do with Apple facilitating (or not) the use of Windows.

 

[iGlow]

more market share

with the education macs the share will rise in september because schools are upgrading there computers

 

[amac4me]

You can say you made the 8% prediction, but why don't you back it up with some proof? I can say that I predicted Apple would release software to dual boot an Intel Mac but without proof who would believe me?

Ok photo-video here's the prediction that I made back on April 7, 2006:

"My prediction is that Apple will have at least 8% market share by the end of the Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 lifecycle."

Which can be found at:
http://switchtoamac.com/site/macs-boot-camp-market-share-switchers.html

 

[inkswamp]

Neither did I, but more market share means more software developers and more apps. That's the only reason I care.

I suppose there's some truth to that, but even when Apple was hitting its lowest points in terms of market share, there was no dearth of good apps. You may not be able to get some more esoteric stuff but that's not going to affect most people.

 

[iMeowbot]

schiller also said — i think the day before boot camp was announced — that apple wouldn't prevent users from putting windows on the intel macs, but they wouldn't facilitate it either.

There is a big difference between the things that Apple people actually say and the twisted versions that get regurgitated in the Apple rumors community.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview Tuesday that the company won’t sell or support Windows itself, but also hasn’t done anything to preclude people from loading Windows onto the machines themselves.

'That’s fine with us. We don’t mind,' Schiller said. 'If there are people who love our hardware but are forced to put up with a Windows world, then that’s OK.'

Link.

In another interview, he said:

After Jobs' presentation, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running Windows on Macs, saying there are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac. "That doesn't preclude someone from running it on a Mac. They probably will," he said. "We won't do anything to preclude that."

Link.

Apple still don't plan to sell or support Windows. And Schiller didn't say that Apple wouldn't facilitate running it. He told the truth.

That's a very different stance from the clear "absolutely not" on integrating Windows into the OS X run time.

 

[shawnce]

Although Apple is behind Gateway in market share, Apple's earnings (not revenue, earnings) last quarter (not year, quarter) is pretty close to Gateway's market capitalization!

Not surprising given that Gateway's market share numbers come directly from the extremely low margin, low end systems they are dumping on the market. In other words they have higher volumes but they are making next to nothing (for some nearly selling at a loss) in order to get those volumes.

...basically the stock market knows that Gateway is not a very safe bet...

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

"my church's mac conversion". your church needs converting?

LOL! Shoosh you!
I am the technology coordinator at my church.

 

[displaced]

reassuring to me even if it only means I will be able to buy computers that run a Mac OS for the next 15+ years.

My thoughts exactly.

I wouldn't care if their share is 1%. Just as long as they remain a sound business and keep up the R&D.

 

[DTphonehome]

Not surprising given that Gateway's market share numbers come directly from the extremely low margin, low end systems they are dumping on the market. In other words they have higher volumes but they are making next to nothing (for some nearly selling at a loss) in order to get those volumes.

...basically the stock market knows that Gateway is not a very safe bet...

Which is exactly why Dell is taking a beating today (down 12%). Their margins are so low that any downturn in sales has a devastating effect on their profits. Apple has much larger margins (as they don't sell $300 computers), so they can afford a small downturn in sales (which isn't happening now anyway).

 

[DTphonehome]

Don't mean to be a wet blanket, but I didn't care about Apple's market share when it was slipping in the 90s and I don't care about it now that it's climbing. I didn't buy my Mac to be popular and I don't particularly care that lots of people are (or are not) using them. It's just an irrelevant metric to me.
...
Besides, Apple deals in the kind of quality that will keep it around for many, many years, regardless of which way its market share is going and that's all that I care about.

You do realize that if Apple's marketshare were to drop to, say, 1% or lower, they would have very little money to spend on R&D, and the quality and innovation you seek would suffer tremendously? Which is why Apple was doing dismally in the 90's and is doing much better today. They are now flush with cash, and can pump out great hardware products, and develop and refine the software that drives sales. Market share (and high margins) is important to ensure a steady flow of cash for those projects.

So, you don't care about how market share affects you, but if you were the only Mac user, I assure you, Apple wouldn't be manufacturing products just for your puny market share. (To make an extreme example)

 

[dongmin]

My thoughts exactly.

I wouldn't care if their share is 1%. Just as long as they remain a sound business and keep up the R&D.

Marketshare matters.

Why? The biggest and the most obvious reason is that developing for and porting software to OS X becomes more attractive to developers. Greater market share also helps Apple in its dealings with major partners like Intel and Microsoft.

The other big benefit for consumers is that we may see more product offerings from Apple as the number of macs sold increases. How about that Mac media center everyone's been talking about? Or the fabled Mac tablet?

 

[Thataboy]

I have a baseless, out-of-left-field prediction that I think would increase the Mac marketshare even further:

I think Apple and Microsoft will partner to include Virtual PC in Leopard. I can see them doing it as a BTO pre-install (like iWork), either Virtual PC alone, or with an XP/Vista bundle.

I can see no reason why Microsoft would have such a hard time with a virtualization program when little old Parallels can do it so quickly. They state they are "working with Apple to determine the future of the Virtual PC roadmap" or something like that. It would allow Apple to leverage the new "big plus" of having Windows run in virtualization, but it would force MICROSOFT to support it.

Everyone wins.

Just a guess

 

[milo]

5-7% is possible. Don't ever expect Apple to get above 10 again though.

Why not?

I think there's some upper limit that apple may hit, I just don't see why it would be as low as 10%.

Generic businesses will likely stay with windows for quite a while, regardless of what apple does. But I don't see any reason many creative businesses, schools and home users couldn't switch to macs.

 

[pesos]

well there are two market share stats that are at issue here. one is hardware sales, and one is OS X usage.

i.e. I have a mac mini, but it doesn't have X on it. It runs solely windows 2003 server with a couple of virtual servers on it also running windows 2003. It's dead quiet so i can run it in my room 24/7. so it's a hardware sale, but not using X.

I built a macbook for a client running XP only since that's what is required for work. i think more and more we will see apple hardware being bought for use with windows -- people who like the aesthetics but prefer to continue to use their current software library and/or have work restrictions.

-Wes

 

[mdriftmeyer]

schiller also said — i think the day before boot camp was announced — that apple wouldn't prevent users from putting windows on the intel macs, but they wouldn't facilitate it either.

apple is notorious for saying one thing and then turning around and doing the exact opposite the video ipod being a perfect example. i'm not saying it will happen, i'm just saying don't put much stock in comments from apple execs regarding future products.

What's your point?

Dual Boot allowing for multiple OS's to be selected at boot time vs. true virtualization allowing multiple OS's to be instantiated within OS X, albeit at a reduced performance aren't contradicting Phil's two statements.

We provide the boot loader.

Parallels provides the virtual solution. If you want native speed then you can run reboot into a different OS with boot camp. If you don't then go with Parallels.

 

[displaced]

Marketshare matters.

Why? The biggest and the most obvious reason is that developing for and porting software to OS X becomes more attractive to developers. Greater market share also helps Apple in its dealings with major partners like Intel and Microsoft.

The other big benefit for consumers is that we may see more product offerings from Apple as the number of macs sold increases. How about that Mac media center everyone's been talking about? Or the fabled Mac tablet?

True, I was being pretty flippant with that reply.

Having said that, I was attempting to underline the point that marketshare is a percentage. Even an apparently low figure (even 5% which we're all hoping for is still a small percentage!) represents a sizeable market, considering the size of the computing industry in general.

 

[shelterpaw]

I'll get excited when/if Apple's Market share reaches 10%. Other than that, it's not such a big deal, IMO.

 

[DTphonehome]

I'll get excited when/if Apple's Market share reaches 10%. Other than that, it's not such a big deal, IMO.

You can't get to 10% from 4% without passing through 4.8%

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

And to think Leopard didn't even coem yet!

 

[macFanDave]

They're behind Gateway in number of units shipped. Gateway produces and ships more units than Apple.

Michael, read shawnce's message #61. It's exactly how I wanted to reply to your statement, only better.

About market share, there is an optimal level, I believe. Too low and the issue of third-party applications and peripherals becomes a problem. However, if Apple's marketshare gets too high, there could be some anti-trust problems.

Let's face it: Apple is a monopoly, but with such a small market share, it is a monopoly that we have freely chosen to deal with. We Mac consumers cannot go to the DOJ and claim we have no alternatives (just because your alternatives suck doesn't mean you don't have them.) If Apple were wildly successful and exceeded this threshold market share, their business model may be interfered with by the government.

10% should be far below that threshold.