ChangeWave Research’s latest consumer spending survey shows explosive Apple Mac sales, driven in part by high customer satisfaction with the company’s new Mac OS X Leopard operating system.
The survey of 4,604 ChangeWave Alliance members, conducted January 2-8, revealed 17% of respondents bought an Apple laptop over the past 90 days. That’s 3 percentage points higher than the previous measure in November 2007.
Apple desktop purchases came in at 16% over this time period – up 6 percentage points.
The results represent an astonishing leap for Apple among consumer PC purchasers over the holidays.
Looking at the next 90 days, a third of planned PC buyers (33%; up 4-pts) say they’ll purchase an Apple laptop – a new all-time high for the electronics giant. At the same time, 29% say they’ll buy an Apple desktop – matching their November all-time high.
Apple also maintains its big lead in customer satisfaction compared to other major PC manufacturers. Nearly four-in-five Apple buyers (79%) over the past 90 days say they are Very Satisfied with their purchase (another 18% say they are Somewhat Satisfied).
To put this in context, Apple’s two biggest competitors – Dell and Hewlett-Packard – had 59% and 58% satisfaction ratings respectively.
“It comes as no surprise that Apple sets the standard in terms of customer satisfaction,” said Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave Research and editor of ChangeWave Investing, “but there’s a new twist on why they’re outperforming the rest of the industry – it’s the amazing customer satisfaction rating on Apple’s new Leopard OS.”
With the new Leopard Operating System now on the market, for the first time ChangeWave was able to compare its customer satisfaction rating against the competition.
Better than four-in-five Apple buyers (81%) said they were Very Satisfied with Leopard – an exceptionally high rating for a new operating system. This compares to 53% and 51% for Windows XP, and just 27% and 15% respectively for Microsoft’s poorly-received Windows Vista.
Leopard’s high customer satisfaction not only dwarfs Microsoft’s, but it’s having a direct impact on consumer intentions to purchase an Apple computer.
More than one-in-four consumers (26%) say the Leopard OS is making them more likely to buy an Apple computer in the future – another clear indication of how Leopard is helping drive Mac sales.
In other findings, the survey showed slower than expected Dell laptop sales over the past 90 days (22%; down 5-pts), although desktops sales were down just slightly (33%; down 1-pt). On a brighter note for Dell, planned purchases of Dell laptops over the next 90 days (30%; up 2-pts) look set to improve and Dell desktops (36%; up 5-pts) show strength going forward.
For Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), this year’s consumer holiday season contained little to be excited about, with 28% of respondents who bought a computer saying they purchased an H-P laptop (down 1-pt), and 26% a desktop (down 2-pts). Planned purchasing of H-P computers over the next 90 days looks similarly uneventful, with 21% of respondents saying they’ll buy an H-P laptop (unchanged from previously) and 23% a desktop (down 1-pt).
Importantly, in perhaps the biggest warning sign of the survey, overall consumer PC buying looks weak for the next 90 days – with just 13% of respondents saying they’ll buy a computer. That’s 3-pts less than last January and the weakest reading ChangeWave has had in more than a year.
Full article with more charts here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s pretty amazing that Windows XP can get half of the respondents to say they’re “very satisfied” until you realize that those are the ones who’ve yet to try a Mac. Ignorance is bliss. Microsoft banks on it. The more people see others using Macs and experience Macs for themselves in schools, at a friend’s or relatives’ house, etc., the lower “satisfaction” with Windows will fall.
Poor PC user on Visa reading this web page….
“Cancel or Allow”
Lol i agree Vista is about as good as a pole up your backside
Installing Leopard this weekend for sure now.
And buying a new AppleTV.
And buying a Airport Base Station.
And a Mac Mini to hook up my nice Matte Screen to.
I have old eyes, reflections in glossy screens gives me headaches.
It’s amazing what Apple is accomplishing despite going up against a company that has a Government approved monopoly on the market.
If they didn’t have this monopoly, can you imagine the massive losses they have been incurring for years in numbers? They would have been out of business many years ago. Boy, sure is nice to be able to keep having that monopoly guarantee that revenue stream, year after year….
Who (except Zune Tang) could ever be surprised about that? So obvious!
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I love how they have to have a ton of columns for all the crappy versions of windows.
MS doesn’t really care about how people receive Vista. MS just sell it and people buy it. Call it whatever you want, Vista sells.
The reality is, whether you like Vista or not, you have a highly good chance to use it since Microsoft is the standard. Whenever a person buy a PC, she gets Vista. Therefore Microsoft really can afford sucking since 90+% of the market will certanly end up with that new OS on their machine.
Apple on the other end needs to execute perfectly, innovate like crazy, be ahead of the game constantly… and not miss their chance with the iPhone. This is their new opportunity to become a reference in the corporate world since that little tiny stuff is in fact, a computer.
I love how they have to have a ton of columns for all the crappy versions of windows.
I for one would be interested to see where Tiger would come in.
“If they didn’t have this monopoly, can you imagine the massive losses they have been incurring for years in numbers?”
Gates would still be writing bad software. But out of his mom’s basement.
And Ballmer would still be frightening children, causing livestock to calve prematurely and killing thousands of acres of crops by salting the earth with his unique form of irrigation.
“And Ballmer would still be frightening children, causing livestock to calve prematurely and killing thousands of acres of crops by salting the earth with his unique form of irrigation.”
ROFLMAO
altogether now…’well der!’
The ultimate no-brainer story! Otherwise known as preaching to the choir!
Nevertheless, its as I keep saying -> the big mo’ is moving behind apple and the push is happening. There’s no substitute for quality!
Maybe it’ll be like the early 80’s all over again when Apple ruled the earth (well, them and Commodore- shine on Apple II, Vic 20 and Commodore 64 you crazy daimonds – 2 points if you can name the show where that come from? The bit about shining on crazy diamonds)
@Ampar
Ahahaha… I bet in somewhere in one of the multiverses world this is really happening.
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“causing livestock to calve prematurely”
I heard he may even have that effect on sheep.
“I heard he may even have that effect on sheep.”
Or as Ballmer likes to grunt, “Ooooh, curly, fuzzy snack.”
Come on Zune Tang, where is your take on this?
Jubei, welcome to the machine.
XP approval rating is only that high because half of them have tried Vista and gone back to XP.
Bah, Those statistics are biased. If you add up all the Windows columns, you get 146% – Close to twice the satisfaction which dwarfs Apple’s measly 81%
Seriously, there have been a few “articles” going around claiming Leopard was having huge problems with acceptance like Vista has been. Between this little survey and Jobs’ comment about the upgrade sales for Leopard, I think that there is no real comparison.
Pink Floyd
Shine on you crazy diamonds
indeed.
Isn’t the name of that album “Wish You Were Here”?
(And Shine On You Crazy Diamond was the ultimate make-out song on it; together with “Welcome to the Machine”, it came in at about 20 minutes…)
I looked at these charts and :
Hey, wait a minute, I say you have to add up all the Microsoft OS’s to get a real total. (53 51 27 15 = 153)
I get 153% of the people buying a Microsoft OS are glad that an some kind of OS came with the computer.
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See, Microsoft is much better than you are trying to make them.
Disclaimer. This advertisment was paid for by Microsoft and in no way resembles the truth.
MDN word = quality. Honest.
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And hey, to the other guy who came up with 146, … I know my numbers are right since I used Vista and Excel.
And hey, to the other guy who came up with 146, … I know my numbers are right since I used Vista and Excel.
And hey, to the other guy who came up with 146, … I know my numbers are right since I used Vista and Excel.
And hey, to the other guy who came up with 146, … I know my numbers are right since I used Vista and Excel.