“Apple’s retail outlets will be critical in selling Mac mini’s to Windows users, according to Needham & Co.,” Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK. “In a research note released to clients analyst Charles Wolf postulates that with Apple ‘frequently described as a religion,’ the Apple Stores, ‘have become the places of worship, succeeding brilliantly in spreading the gospel.’ And the introduction of the Mac mini will help the stores in the task of, ‘attracting Windows users to the Mac platform and growing the Mac’s market share,’ he writes.”
“IDC figures released yesterday showed Apple to be the fifth place US PC vendor, with worldwide unit shipments growing well in excess of the industry average in 2004, and a 0.1 per cent rise in global marketshare, to 3.3 per cent. Apple saw 25 per cent growth in the quarter, in contrast to an industry average of 13.7 per cent. Since launch in May 2001 Apple Stores now deliver revenues of $2.2 billion per year – 16 per cent of Apple’s worldwide sales, and 40 per cent of Apple’s US retail sales. The company had 101 stores open at the end of December, and plans to open 25 more this year, Wolf said, pointing out that sales per square foot are ‘more than five times higher’ than typical mall-based stores,” Evans reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sometimes analysts are masters of stating the obvious.
its coming
Oh brother… I hate how they call it a religion. That’s just a form of dismissal. Is it cult-like to tell people about a great game you played? A high quality TV they could buy at a good cost? How your favorite car has over 400,000 miles on it? How you used to buy one brand of something and they kept breaking, but on trying a different brand they now last twice as long? These sorts of suggestions are normal from everyday human beings. Housewives share tips, guys talk about their cars, kids talk about their favorite TV shows. Not trying to stereotype, it’s just that people usually share their good experiences with their friends. Imagine this conversation:
Bob. “Hey Phil, goin for a run?”
Phil. “Yeah Bob… I’ve been running everyday since I got my new shoes, my knees don’t hurt anymore and I seem to be standing taller. You check out a pair of these next time you go to the store.”
Bob. “My God Phil! You’ve joined the MOONIES ya freakin CULTIST!! Get a life man! There’s more to life than SHOES! Quit drinking their cool-aid and seek HELP!!”
Phil. “Uhhhh… okay Bob… I’m gonna go on my run now, you take care.”
Sounds like Bob’s a nut? No kidding it’s common.
Whatever. I love my Mac. Now all you little Windows users get thee a Mac.
Very funny Don. Thanks for the chuckle.
So anyway, has the Amiga religion moved underground or what? Don’t hear too many of them chanting and carrying on anymore.
nototalsucker,
Well said. And people think that Mac users are crazy, wild-eyed fanatics? Anyone who says that has never met someone from Planet Amiga. A good friend of mine, a Mac guru who worked at IBM in the seventies, bought an Amiga when it first came out, and he still has it. As much as he loves OS X and his well-worn TiBook, when he starts on how Amiga has stuff that Macintosh still hasn’t matched, I run. To be fair to him, he heartily approves of how OS X has been developing, and he’s the kind of guy who’d rather low-crawl over broken glass than use a PC. He and his brother own a manufacturing company, and both of us were speechless when his brother, a diehard PC user, told us that he badly wanted a Mac mini. If this guy is interested in a Mac, then the mini is going to sell like nothing we’ve ever seen. Speechless, I tell you. I still can’t believe it.
notatotalsucker I meant to type. Sorry for not getting that right.
Viridian,
I, too, have a friend who is a member of the ‘Amiga cult’ (he has a 1200). Positively sane and rational in every other way, but he will not put the poor thing out of its misery.
I really can’t say anything derogatory, though, since I’ve been the same way about Apple for just as long!
I guess the only difference is, Apple survived and Commodore didn’t… Had fortunes been reversed, it’s hard to say if I would have held on as tightly to my IIgs (if Apple had gone under in 1987).
I really used to love my Amiga 500+ with 68020 and 4MB RAM (2MB Chip, 2MB Fast). It took over the top of my entire desk, especially with the 40MB HD on the side (remember Great Valley Products), but it was so good for it’s day. By the time the A1200 came along, though, Commodore had already blown the cash trying to sell 286 PCs to Germans.
I still think, had Commodore survived, they would have turned Amiga into a very similar machine to current Macs. Shame we’ll never find out.
God, look at that post of mine. It looks like any minute now I’m going to start singing “Memories”.
Dave H is a recovering Amigan? Quick! Get the garlic and holy water! Kidding. I’m kidding, Dave. To be honest, I was extremely impressed when my pal showed me what his Amiga could do (sorry Dave, I forget which model he has). The multitasking was very smooth, and apparently the OS footprint is ridiculously tiny. Amiga was way ahead of its time.
For a minute there Viridian I thought we were talking about the same guy. Your friend has a brother, mine doesn’t (2 sisters in fact).
Ok here’s some memories…
There were actually two friends of mine who bought Amiga 3000’s back in about 1990, which for the money, were much more powerful than the SE I bought at around the same time. They wanted me to get an Amiga too, but at the time I was keen on music related software, and it was easier to … umm… acquire it for the Mac since I knew people at Uni’s who could ummm… borrow the disks. Plus, the Mac emulators available on the Amiga weren’t always 100% compatible.
One of these guys still occaisionally goes on about how much more powerful the Amiga was etc. He often brings up multitasking as a reason why Amiga’s were superior to Macs… well, I just kindly remind them that Lisa also multi-tasked, so it clearly wasn’t beyond Apple at the time.
Besides, I always felt the Mac was much more elegant interface wise.
But seeing a Mac emulator (with Mac II ROM’s maybe?) running on his old 3000 is still impressive, considering the money he’d spent (less than my old SE I think)
They were great machines and I quite liked playing “It Came from the Desert” (based on the b-grade movie “THEM!” for those who don’t know.)
Amiga’s were a cheap way to go fast.
Ironically, before I got the Mac, 3 years earlier I was interested in getting an Amiga 500, when my dad went computer shopping for us… but we ended up getting some NEC APC III thing. It was good for my Uni education (studying computer science), but bad for my sanity.
The best part was later realising the gulf between PC’s and Macs once I’d gotten the SE & an HP Deskjet printer. After installing the software drivers, launching MacPaint, typing something and pressing “Print” and seeing it come out exactly as per the screen was nothing short of amazing.
Needless to say, I was hooked and have been ever since.
Man, I wish I could get to the Nagoya opening tomorrow. Unfortunately it is like an hour and an half away by bullet train and I have to work this weekend. Oh well, I will hit the Yokohama store when it opens.
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