“Flush with the success of its iPod music players and iTunes music store, Apple Computer today will roll out an operating system upgrade for its Macintosh personal computers. Industry experts say the new software, nicknamed Tiger, offers Apple its best opportunity in years to become a major force in desktop computing and win over people who now use computers powered by Windows software from archrival Microsoft Corp.,” Hiawatha Bray writes for The Boston Globe.
“‘Apple clearly has the type of buzz that can get the attention of PC users, and more importantly, at least get them to think about a switch,’ said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies Inc. in Campbell, Calif. Microsoft holds a position of near-total dominance in desktop operating systems, with over 95 percent of the market,” Bray writes.
MacDailyNews Note: Microsoft Windows might “over 95 percent of the market” if you count every last dumb terminal, cash register, and email server. But, if you look at actual machines that people use, more people use Macs than you think. Developers, especially, need to keep this in mind. For just one example, take a look at the operating system stats for BoingBoing, one of the top linked-to blogs on the web, which currently show that 15.2% of the site’s visitors use a Macintosh and 72.9 % use Windows. Seems strange, unless you realize that cash registers and such don’t visit web sites. Quarterly market share does not equal installed base. See related articles below for more info.
Bray continues, “‘People who buy iPods tend to look wistfully at the Mac in the store. If they’re not buying now, they’re thinking about it.’ said Greg DeMichillie, senior analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a research firm in Kirkland, Wash. Tiger should give them more to think about. The new software contains a number of features that Microsoft won’t offer for months, if at all.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
More people use Apple Macs than you think; 8-12 percent of homes use Macs – March 31, 2004
Media parroting: ‘only 3% uses Macintosh’ – honest mistake or outright lie? – July 25, 2003
Forbes: Apple users ‘still account for 10% of the world’s computer users’ – June 02, 2003
Ummm, that was a sh*tty example of marketshare.
Come on now, I support the Mac, but using one website is hardly a litmus test of marketshare.
I agree that Macs have a larger marketshare than is thought, I’ve heard absurd #’s like 2 or 3%, clearly there are more users than that. However, citing a website stat is hardly good research.
… if they gave it a legitimate try.
Answer: Very, very, few will switch.
Where are the sales numbers from Best Buy for the mini?
That would be telling.
(mw) NOPE
Have you ever seen the Apple “area” at Best Buy? You wouldn’t even know that the mini was even there. And then try asking one of the blue shirts about it or any other Apple product out there. Now if Apple made mini Apple stores inside each Best Buy along with an Apple rep to sell the product, then you could actually use Best Buy as a metric for switcher prospects.
how about CompUSA? They have people specifically stationed to sell Apple products; last time I was at my local store, I even got a business card from the salesperson, and it was an Apple card, not a CompUSA card. Their numbers would be indicative, wouldn’t they?
There have been huge sales of iMacs and minis to non-Mac users in the last weeks. The Amazon site is a good indication of that. Macs have been the first four or five computers in the best-sellers list in recent months and, more significantly, in the last weeks and days. Now, how many experienced Mac users buy a computer just before a major soft-ware update; not to mention the coming model revisions (iMacs and eventually minis)?
Most of us, like me, are holding back a while. That means the new-comers who have been buying continually in the last months are going to be joined by a huge number of us Mac users.
I believe the next few months are going to be the most successful in the history of the company.
they said it was one EXAMPLE of their point about Windows machines not all being used by people like a computer.
H. Bray used to be a Mac fan a long time ago. Then he went through a phase where he loved to bash Mac fans. In recent years, he’s changed his tune and can now be found to write nice things about our fave platform once in awhile.
boingboing, huh?
I’m not sure what it means, but I did notice “disney porn” and “bukkake” got 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively, in the “Search Keyphrases” category.
ummm … errr … ok, I guess … ~~~
Went to Bets Buy, and they hadn’t even configured their mac mini with the files that Apple requested that they install, so that the iLife suite could be evaluated. They just left the install DVD sitting in the drive. So I did it myself.
the typo sounded better than the original. Kinda like making a mistake on the piano, that sounds better than Bach had intended.
charko: “There have been huge sales of iMacs and minis to non-Mac users in the last weeks”
B.S. charko – you have no proof.
Amazon sales rankings??? What a joke. How many is it: 1 or 1,0000,000 they have sold? Being at the top of any list can mean nothing. A friend told me his father was number 3 in his High School class. Impressive! Until you find out there were only 3 in his class.
charko: “I believe the next few months are going to be the most successful in the history of the company.”
So you have bought lots and lots of Apple stock? Put your money where your mouth is – sell the house, sell the car and buy Apple stock. Or is it mom´s house and car…
And yet you even admit you are not buying a new apple yet….hmmmmm….
Best Buy and Apple will part company by January 2006 (if not earlier)…got to make space for all the Christmas wrapping in the 4th quarter….
Just checked stats on one of my websites. For last week 10.8% of people visiting site were Mac users.
It is a non-tech, non-Mac site.
Side note: 61% of Windows users were using Windows XP.
The number of non-Windows XP, Window´s users was more than the total number of Mac users. (That´s who Apple should be targeting – people who are still using old versions of Windows. There are lots of them with old computers out there.)
I’ve decided that I am going to help apple out. I am going to buy a black t shirt and have printed on the back: Viruses affecting windows 95,000+ Viruses affecting Mac osX 0. I’ll go walk around bets buy in the computer department for awhile and see what happens.
If BoingBoing has 1.5 million unique vistors a month then it is a pretty damn good statistical sample.
Whatever the current figure – THE NUMBERS ARE RISING
>>>Side note: 61% of Windows users were using Windows XP.
The number of non-Windows XP, Window´s users was more than the total number of Mac users.<<<
Yes! running an add that asks, Have you reinstalled windoze so many times you remember your CD key? (I still can) This may get some PO’d semi-technical people to start thinking. I think that this is the greatest opportunity that Apple has is convincing those running 98 on PIs and IIs that it doesn’t have to be that way…
wanker dude: “I’ll go walk around bets buy in the computer department for awhile and see what happens.”
I am sure you will pick up lots of chicks that way.
And print on the front of the t-shirt:
“I´m a complete loser with nothing better to do.”
wanker dude: “Have you reinstalled windoze so many times you remember your CD key? (I still can)”
Wanker – do you have a windows95 computer?
We have macs and windows peecees (6 windows computers)
All windows running XP. Age from 4 months to 4 years old. WE have NEVER, ever had to reinstall windows.
If you wanted to get a fairer representation of the percentage of Mac vs PC users, you would need to get stats from at least 10 major sites that attract all surfers regardless of platform and then average the numbers. I would recommmend surveying the following sites:
Google, Yahoo, CNN, MSNBC, FOXnews, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, TIME Magazine, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia.
But, many users like me visit sites from home (Mac) and work (PC). Not sure how that would skew the numbers.
I have a pair of 3 year old computers, one a Mac using Jaguar, one a HP using XP Pro SP2. I bought them both the same week and use each machine daily.
Not counting reboots for software updates, since SP2 I only reboot the XP computer about once a week, before SP2 it was about twice a week. I have only rebooted the Mac for software updates.
I reboot XP weekly, I NEVER reboot OS X.
I spend about 2 hours a week maintaining XP and about 10 minutes a week maintaining OS X. I never surf the net with my XP machine.
MW truth LOL
Why do you reboot XP weekly? (And if you do how long does this take: 1-2 minutes?)
I have XP and don´t.
Why do you spend 2 hours a week maintaining XP.
I never do.
I always surf the net with my XP machine. Writing this with an XP machine.
We have 5 XP machines (plus Macs).
Why do you own an XP machine if you don´t know how to use it?
AL…could it be you are making it all up?????
Al – what is it you are maintaining for 2 hours each week on your XP computer?
You polishing your hard drive, changing the oil on your monitor, rotating your ram chips, putting in a new air filter on your graphic card?
My MW word: BS as in your full of it.
Dear Not Charko
Although I’m 57, I’ve never owned a house or a car (don’t have a license and never wanted one).
I borrowed €10,000 four months ago and bought Apple shares with it. When the shares fell recently, I scraped together another €1500 and bought more Apple shares.
Everything (the little) I have is in Apple.
Of course my estimates of Mac sales are my opinion – I didn’t say I had proof, but Amazon is one of many indications that lead me to this conclusion.
It doesn’t matter how many Macs Amazon sells, it’s the proportion of the computers that are sold that is revealing.
And I see these indications all over the Internet and among my friends and aquaintances in Europe.
That’s why I have risked so much.
Charko – First rule of investing: never put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify.
And you base any investment on sales rankings from Amazon…arrrghh! Do you realize how few computers are sold through Amazon? Very, very few.
PC buyers get better deals at other outlets that´s why there are few PC sales in the top ten at Amazon.
Being a European you should realize that.
For example, the grocery stores in Germany (Aldi and Lidl) sell huge amount of computers – none of these computers are available at Amazon.
In Germany there is not one Apple computer in the top 20 selling notebooks or desktops at Amazon.
The same in England.
In the US the #3 on the top sellers in desktops is a battery. #4 is a book. #8 and 10 a Sony computer.
Top sellers in all computers at Amazon as of right now (notebooks and desktops).
1. Sony Vaio laptop
2. Apple iBook
3. Compaq Presario laptop
4. Apple Powerbook 12 inch
5. Toshiba A75 laptop
6. Toshiba M45x laptop
7. Toshiba M35x laptop
8. Apple Powerbook 15.2 in
9. Apple mac mini
10. Apple powerbook 17 inch.
Its like, so what!???!
Apple stock is down about 25% in the last few weeks. Gulp. There goes 2,500 Euros for you. Diversify.