The iMac was a big success for Apple, but Apple's market share of the PC market is noticeably higher today. At its peak, during the first full year of iMac availability in 1999, the
ratio between PCs and Macs was as low as 27.6x, ie, for every Mac sold, 27.6 PCs were sold. That number increased to 33x already the next year and kept on rising every year to over 56x in 2004.
In 2015,
that number was 13.8x. This means Apple's market share is twice as high as at its peak during original iMac era and even 2.4x as high as during the second full year of the iMac and 2.8x as high as during the third year of the original iMac. And if you think the iMac dominated Mac sales more back then than Mac laptops do today, think again. In laptops, the PC to Mac sales number ratio is
as low as 8.7x. And we all know that all Macs will get USB-C sooner or later, this has happened with the original USB, it happened with Firewire, it happened with DVI, mDP and TB.
Except the 13.8× number you're quoting includes Macs that don't have USB-C and people replace their computers at a much slower rate now than during the iMac G3 era. You're only concerned with
market share but neglects
replacement rate. Remember sales numbers is more a reflection of the latter. So the rest of the above argument doesn't stand. Nice try though.
And that is before taking into account that USB-C, until last week, actually had a noticeably higher share on PC laptops than on Mac laptops.
This is neither here nor there. What does USB-C having a higher share on PC laptops than on Mac laptops have to do with anything? No PC laptop on the market today has only USB-C ports. PC people are not forced to use only USB-C or to buy dongles. It's just an added feature that they can take advantage of without their workflow or computer setup being disrupted. Higher share only matters if all the PCs you're including have only USB-C ports.
Don't kid yourself. Most people probably own more than half a dozen different USB cables (my count is six: USB-B, USB-mini, USB-micro, USB-3, USB-Sony, USB-Panasonic). Adding one more variant (USB-C to USB-C) won't break the bank.
You really should learn to read what other people wrote
in its entirety before you go off with your obloquy. I said afterwards that it's about "
Apple takes away something most users rely on and find extremely useful without offering something better or even a compelling roadmap in return," rather than having to pay for dongles. I even put it in
bold.
b) switching the iPhone to USB-C now after only four years of Lightning would also be seen as Apple 'forcing' everybody to buy new cables or adaptors.
Exactly, the iPhone and iPad, as you so eloquently put it, aren't ready. Not at all, in fact. So why not wait for another year before going all USB-C? You can talk all day but the arguments supporting going all USB-C
this year are at best tenuous and those against adding at least one TB2 and one USB3 port even more so. It's kind of ridiculous to think that the benefits of USB-C can't be enjoyed were "legacy" ports not gotten rid of. If there are so many USB-C devices out there already, what's with the insecurity complex that we need to haten the transition by eliminating all "legacy" ports? Apple can wait and should wait but they choose not to. This is on top of making the 15" arguably the most expensive MacBook Pro ever.
That is how Apple has always operated and despite the huffing and puffing (and bold text) in the days after a new product is released, things calm down pretty quickly and this becomes largely a non-issue (replier's own bold) or simply the cost of doing business.
So you're essentially confirming what others here have been saying all along, that Apple knows it has a stranglehold on its users and that the cost of leaving its ecosystem is too high that so long as they make sure the benefits of staying slightly outweigh the costs of leaving, they can milk their quasi-monopoly for eternity.
I don't know in which world you are living but USB-C is being widely adopted in PCs as well (in particular laptops), as well as in smartphones. My friendly neighbourhood online retailer lists 650 PC laptops with USB-A 3.x and 200 with USB-C 3.x. I think you should reconsider the use of the word 'solely' here.
I refer you to the previous point about no PC laptop on the market today has exclusively USB-C ports. People are not arguing against USB-C connector, but, unfortunately, which is the point you and some others are arguing against. Rather, people are arguing that the transition to
all USB-C is too abrupt, so abrupt that Apple themselves aren't even ready.