“Apple’s strategy is to introduce new technology at the high end and target their professional markets, and then about a year or 18 months later, ‘they’ll roll the technology into a lower line and try to broaden the market,’ says IDC analyst Roger Kay.,” reports James Maguire for NewsFactor Network.
“As Apple’s Power Mac G4 aged, the company was in danger of losing its most devout audience: the audio, video and graphics professionals who favor the high end of the company’s line. By comparison to the latest Intel-based Windows machines, the G4’s specs lag considerably — even after factoring in Apple’s oft-made claim that its machines run faster than comparably clocked Windows boxes,” Maguire reports.
Maguire reports, “With the recently launched G5 , though, Apple has given this audience a machine with the muscle it needs. Boasting an industry-leading 64-bit processor, the G5 ‘is definitely developed for our creative professionals — to provide the bandwidth and the power to do some really amazing desktop editing and audio stuff,’ Apple spokesperson Nathalie Welch told NewsFactor. But, can this new machine, which has enough computing power to outperform even some low-end servers, much less the average desktop, boost Apple’s nearly disappearing 3-percent market share?”
“‘Market share is not a very good subject for Apple,’ IDC analyst Roger Kay told NewsFactor, though he added that the company has seen some minuscule improvement recently,” Maguire writes. “Research firm TrendWatch notes that Apple’s share in its historically strong markets remains stable. For example, Macintoshes are used by 83 percent of graphic designers, 77 percent of corporate design departments, and 65 percent of ad agencies. Kay called these numbers ‘highly credible.'”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Media parroting: ‘only 3% uses Macintosh’ – honest mistake or outright lie? – Friday, July 25, 2003
Syracuse Post-Standard: 3 percent is a false stat; Mac holds ’10 to 12 percent of the market for personal computers’ – August 27, 2003