“If Apple Computer is so great, how come it’s so small? With all the hoopla surrounding the company–and you’ll hear a lot this week as Apple turns 30–you’d think it pulled off the first manned spaceflight to Neptune or invented long division. Instead, the company’s recent accomplishments include making it possible to buy Foghat singles on the Web and selling a leather pouch for music players for $99,” Michael Kanellos writes for CNET.
“Apple held 2.3 percent of the world’s computer market at the end of last year… Apple shipped 4.74 million Macs in calendar year 2005. That’s 20 percent lower than the growth in shipments (5.7 million) Dell experienced in the same year,” Kanellos writes. “Size, of course, isn’t everything. Unlike some other PC makers, Apple turns a profit and has successfully branched out into other markets with the iPod. The company has a strong influence on PC designs and home technology, according to, among others, Intel Vice President Deborah Conrad. At scientific conferences, I see a greater percentage of attendees toting Macs than at other events, so clearly the intelligentsia has tuned in. Plus, people love the company and its products… But the company could accomplish all that and still sell a lot more computers. So why doesn’t it?”
“The reason, I think, comes down to the fact that Apple is a company that’s always been more concerned about having good ideas than good friends,” Kanellos writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Things don’t turn around immediately. Apple is clearly on the upswing after paying a huge price for deciding to keep the Mac to itself while Microsoft licensed Windows to anybody with a pulse. But, Mac users received a huge gift from Apple because the Mac remained in Apple’s control which has resulted in the best personal computer platform available. Numbers of units shipped doesn’t equal impact on the market. Apple’s impact is immeasurable; basically everybody uses a “Mac” in some form (the real thing) or another (Windows) today. Apple is growing faster than the PC industry today and clearly they dominate the mind share, if not yet the market share. By other measures, Apple is not “small.” Apple currently has a $53 billion market value and for fiscal 2005, they generated revenue of $13.93 billion and a net profit of $1.335 billion, reflecting annual growth of 68 percent and 384 percent respectively; representing the highest annual revenue and net profit in the Company’s history.. Apple’s on the right track; they need to keep opening retail stores (it’s working), though we do wish they’d advertise the Mac better to the general public.
Paul Thurrott, on Internet-Nexus today, writes a paragraph with which we agree, “I think that what makes Apple special can’t be measured by traditional company metrics. It’s kind of like the basketball player who contributes team-oriented play at the right time but never gets rewarded with decent stats. Apple is special because they do things differently, period. Apple is special because it’s lasted for 30 years despite almost always doing things differently. And it’s special because Apple has stood up to some of the most powerful companies on earth and come away, if not triumphant at all times, at least with its values intact. They’re unique in corporate America, and truly unique in the computer industry.”
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