“Apple’s influence on tech culture may be large, but its global share of the computing market is stuck at a boutique-size 2 percent. The Cupertino, California, company needs to keep trumping its own designs to entice the Mac faithful to replace their suddenly dowdy-looking computers. And it needs something electric to revive iMac sales, which have fallen this year as consumers switch to laptops or cheaper desktops computers,” Dawn C. Chmielewski reports for The San Jose Mercury News.
“The revamped iMac’s austere yet striking design will undoubtedly attract some new buyers. But it probably won’t dramatically increase Apple’s slice of the computing market, analysts say. ‘A big success for Apple is a small perturbation for the PC market overall,’ said Roger L. Kay, an analyst for technology research firm IDC. ‘If Apple really knocks the cover off the ball, it can rise by a couple of tenths of a percent in market share,'” Chmielewski reports.
“Analysts agree there are indications that some consumers whose first experience with Apple was an iPod are now making the transition to Macs. Apple’s most recent quarterly report, released in June, showed the highest shipments of Macs in 3 1/2 years,” Chmielewski reports. “Apple is trying to encourage more PC-to-Mac converts with a marketing campaign that touts the new iMac G5 as a product ‘from the creators of the iPod.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We know that cool design alone can’t seem to win Windows converts. We think that the iPod has some sort of unmeasured “halo effect,” that helps Windows users consider a Mac for their next computer purchase. We also believe that Windows viruses, spyware, adware, patches, service packs, etc., are driving people to the realization that, contrary to what Microsoft told them, Windows never really came close to the Mac at all. We know that ‘Longhorn’ delays, along with it being stripped of its best vaporware features, are leading to frustration with Windows users. We see Apple Retail Stores springing up seemingly everywhere. The big question that analysts above seem to have missed is: Will the combination of superior Mac design, iPod’s influence, Windows’ morass of security problems, the disappointment of ‘Longhorn,’ and the existence of close-by Apple Retail stores form a sort of “super market share mover” that will drive Macintosh share to rise dramatically?
With iPod riding high, Mac OS X years ahead of XP, a stripped Longhorn years from shipping, Windows punishing its users for using the Internet, and local Apple Retail Stores just a few miles away for the majority of U.S. shoppers, Apple couldn’t ask for a better chance to increase Mac share. If not now, when?
Oh, Apple, now would be a good idea to actually advertise and show and tell the world about Mac OS X on TV, radio, and print, too. What, exaclty, are you waiting for?
