“With Apple’s Mac home market share tripling in the past five years, Microsoft has fought back with its own advertising campaigns attacking Apple for the first time, a move one analyst sees as a mistake,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“In a new note to investors, Charlie Wolf of Needham & Company said the Mac’s recent market share gains are a result of much more than advertising. In addition, he said [Microsoft] would be better suited using its money to combat overseas piracy in emerging countries,” Hughes reports. “‘One has to admit that Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ campaign was humorous if nothing else,’ Wolf said. ‘But why Microsoft responded with an ad campaign of its own is a mystery.'”
Hughes reports, “He said that Windows’ share of the worldwide PC market is only 70 percent, and that’s mostly due to piracy of Microsoft’s operating system. Chasing those pirates, Wolf said, would be a better value for shareholders… Apple’s own market gains with the Mac platform are attributed by Wolf to the iPod ‘halo effect,’ in which users become more familiar with Apple products and migrate to the Mac. In addition, he said constant updates to OS X as well as the company’s consumer-friendly Apple retail stores have all given the Mac more market and mind share. ‘Those share gains began long before Apple introduced its ‘Get a Mac’ campaign,’ Wolf said.”
Hughes reports, “Apple’s share of the U.S. home market, which is the focus of its ad campaign, has already increased from a low 2.9 percent in the second quarter of 200r to 7.8 percent by the time the ‘Get a Mac’ campaign began, and it eventually rose as high as 12.1 percent in the second quarter of 2008.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ottawa Mark” for the heads up.]
M$ has the money to waste. It’s no big deal for them. It’s the poor dumb suckers who fall for their ads that can’t afford the wasted $.
Another anal analyst. LOL Their advice, even when it makes sense, only makes sense for making money today…. right now.
Yea, MS, don’t worry about losing share…. until its too low to matter, then just close the shop and give money back….
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As Apple already knows, when you only make software, people can and will pirate it. If you make both, you can control hardware much better. ANd they always forget the avalanche effect. That is when people start moving to a new and better product, like a snow ball rolling down the hill, it only gets bigger and bigger..
Hey, MS is run by a salesman. The only thing he knows well is how to sell. Make crap and sell it well.
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Just a thought,
en
“…Windows’ share of the worldwide PC market is only 70 percent, and that’s mostly due to piracy of Microsoft’s operating system. Chasing those pirates, Wolf said, would be a better value for shareholders…”
Wow. He said it out loud.
And Wolf’s suggested solution for Microsoft will drive even more people away from Microsoft products.
Microsoft already treats its customers as criminals, and if MS tries further to “chase those pirates”, Microsoft will have to resort to even more inconvenient, user-unfriendly, “security” hurdles for anyone running their already crappy OS.
“Microsoft: Our Failure Keeps Getting Deeper”
@jaundiced,
money, like market share, is finite.
M$ will not always have the money for ads that don’t work, and their history proves that they’re not so good at making products that people actually want. They should be spending their money wisely now, or they’ll end up paying for it dearly in the very near future.
@ gzero
Well don’t forget they do have a Monopoly that is allowed by the Government to continue and thrive. Also their continued push for ActiveX will guarantee a lockdown on Windows and Internet Explorer. Look at South Korea… if it happens, its IE/Windows only there baby!
Just a small detail, but “Get a Mac” was Apple’s previous ad campaign.
Instead, that should say, “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC.”
I can’t believe how much M$ sells their Office and OS products for.
Seriously. That is a lot of cash every couple years on upgrades.
And for what, a new coating on the same pile of crap created years ago.
Their OS and Office products are the cash cow that supports all their other money losing ventures.
Last year, it was reported that the Mac was 27% of the freshman computers at college (in Virginia Tech I think). I bet that it is higher this year. Even my niece who has only had Windows PC in her house, got a MacBook for her first day in college. When I see her, I will ask if the Mac were 1 out of 4 or 1 out of 3 at orientation.
… didn’t Apple already cover this in one of their ads? MDN you should like it in!
200r? What year is that?
I found the like to the University of Virginia story:
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/16748/
Would love to see this years numbers! Look at the exponential year over year market share for the Mac.
I see 37.5% back in May.
“Mac use explodes at University of Virginia; 37.5% of first-year students are Mac users”
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/mac_use_explodes_at_university_of_virginia_375_of_first_year_students/
Again, the graph tell the story. By 2010, the Macs will exceed 50%, if it hasn’t already this year.
Churro?
Microsoft is panicking. It’s reacting.
And Infinite Loop’s management are laughing their heads off as they dangle the next thing to make the big Ballmer bear dance in frustration.
“Needham analyst Wolf: Microsoft’s anti-Apple Mac ads a waste of money”
Hey Wolf … STFU
Is their money, if they want to waste it that’s their business
Keep your nose out of it … and your advice to yourself …
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BC
BC,
Not to worry. MS does NOT listen to analysts, especially not those whose noses aren’t brown (and I don’t mean skin colour).
Even if they DO listen to Wolf and do as he advises, the action would undoubtedly alienate the little good will that MS has among the ultra-loyal core (however few of them may there be).
May Steve Balmer live to run MS (into the ground) as long as necessary.
Rumors abound that Pfizer is about to strike a deal with Microsoft for a supply of brown-colored Zune HD’s, custom-designed for its new proctology division. These devices will be special colonoscopy tools designed to play music from within the patient’s bowels, thus making an uncomfortable procedure a little more bearable.
M$ profits from the piracy market because it cements their market share. They wouldn’t have gotten a dime from pirates, who take whatever is free and easy, but piracy reinforces Windows as the default OS. Especially in the Asian market. People buying a new computer, or upgrading their OS honestly, find themselves compelled to buy Windows because it’s what “everyone else” is already using.
Don’t be surprised if piracy is part of M$’s business model.
Hey Scot Murf …
“People … find themselves compelled to buy Windows because it’s what ‘everyone else’ is already using.”
Yep, and not just in the “Asian market” … plus
“Don’t be surprised if piracy is part of M$’s business model.”
Yeppers again, just ask Netscape and the Justice Department …
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AND pDrag …
I know, but even Ballmer has to get lucky on occasion
Never forget that Dorm Room Assignment …
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BC
If M$ is willing to lose that kind of money every year on pirated software they are not long for this world. Wow. That is more money that the GNP of many countries!
@Jubei:
“Well don’t forget they do have a Monopoly that is allowed by the Government to continue and thrive. Also their continued push for ActiveX will guarantee a lockdown on Windows and Internet Explorer. Look at South Korea… if it happens, its IE/Windows only there baby!”
Strange, our security department has Active X totally disabled here. They must be misguided. Also, Microsoft may have a lot of money right now, but so did GM. Microsoft is hemorrhaging cash.
Needham get it!
Microsft: “Digging a deeper hole, day by day!”
The main problem with Microsoft’s laptop hunter ads is that they actually tell viewers to consider getting a Mac. In every one of them, the fake “real” shopper takes a look at a Mac laptop.
About the only thing Microsoft has going for it is momentum. Most Windows PC users who need new hardware just blindly buy the low-ball special of the week at WalMart (that comes with whatever version of Windows it happens to have), instead of even considering a Mac. Telling them to consider a Mac like “Lauren” did in the commercial is really stupid. Once they walk into a “Mac Store,” a good percentage of those potential customers will end up getting a Mac.
Apple thanks Microsoft for the referral.