“As impressive as the iPod has been for Apple, its success has yet to transfer to the company’s PC line, which remains a high-profile also-ran. In the last quarter, Apple’s U.S. market share dropped to 3.5% from 3.6% in the same period last year, according to research firm Gartner. Worldwide, Apple’s share data are even more depressing–going from 2.2% to 2.1%,” Rachel Rosmarin writes for Forbes. “And though Apple’s shipments increased 3.1% to 570,000 computers, according to Gartner, shipments for the rest of the industry grew 13.1% in that same period, driven in part by price cuts from struggling Dell. That has to be worrisome for Jobs and his company, who have long been banking on a halo effect from the iPod to boost computer sales. Apple is now throwing in a free iPod with sales of certain laptops.”
“Five years into the iPod era, it may be time to give up on the notion that the product lines are intertwined. ‘There’s no empirical evidence to suggest that iPods make people buy computers,’ says IDC research manager David Daoud. Apple’s newest hope is that its new line of ‘Mactels,’ built around Intel chips, will give it a boost. Only half of the new Intel units were available during the most recent quarter. But don’t expect sales to shoot up soon, says Samir Bhavnani, director of research at Current Analysis, who says the company’s market share could remain flat until the end of 2006,” Rosmarin writes. “But Bhavnani predicts that Apple will begin rebounding this fall. So does Daoud, who thinks the company’s share could shoot up to 5.5% by the end of the year.”
“Apple’s Intel deal will begin to pay off late this summer, these analysts predict, spurred by back-to-school purchases. A new line of Macbooks that sell for less than $1,100 should appeal to parents and the college-bound–especially now that these same computers can run Microsoft’s Windows via Apple’s BootCamp software,” Rosmarin writes. “And a new retail test with big box chain Best Buy in California could set Apple up to introduce its wares to a new clientele… Should Apple’s share grow by the end of the year, another PC maker’s will shrink. That’s likely to be Sony, says Bhavnani. Sony’s Vaio line appeals to the same design-conscious consumer who might choose a $2,800 souped-up Apple product like the MacBook Pro, which comes with a 2.16-gigahertz Intel Core Duo processor and a 120-gigabyte hard drive.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple threw quite the monkey wrench into the iPod Halo by plopping the Intel transition into the works. Obviously, some people bought Macs because they liked their iPods; they’ve told us so. Maybe the Halo effect takes longer than we’ve given it to markedly affect Mac share? We think the iPod Halo is one component of Apple’s appeal to new users; it helps sell Macs along with all of the other reasons to Get a Mac. The fact that Apple makes a nice portable digital media player, offers a nice jukebox application and has a nice online music service (iPod+iTunes+iTunes Store=iPod Halo Effect) is hardly the premier reason to choose a Macintosh.
The fact that Apple’s shipments increased during a major transition, with entire lines of PowerPC machines being considered “dead end” by some customers while Mac applications were and are still being rewritten for the new Intel-based Macs is astounding and bodes extremely well for Apple’s future Mac sales. Back in June 2005, when Steve Jobs announced the Intel transition, very few would have predicted that Apple’s Mac market share would have the chance to hit 5.5% U.S. market share by the end of this transition year. While we’re skeptical of Best Buy selling Macs (based upon past performance, if you can call it “performance”), we do agree that things don’t look good for Sony or anyone else who targets the “high-end” with OS-limited* PCs.
*Only Apple Macintosh personal computers can run the Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux operating systems and applications at native speeds.
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Related articles:
Analysts expect Apple’s new MacBook to drive market share gains in near future – May 17, 2006
Many believe Mac market share increases coming now that Apple Macs can run Windows applications – April 25, 2006
Apple ready to take back market share; may debut Windows virtualization in Mac OS X Leopard – April 21, 2006
Pre-Boot Camp report: Apple could double market share on Microsoft defections – April 13, 2006
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Analyst: Apple Boot Camp could be an opportunity for Mac market share gains – April 06, 2006
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Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
Why buy a Dell when Apple’s Intel-based computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows? – June 08, 2005
My clients own a lot of AAPL shares, PLEEEEZ humans, what are you doing, do not sell your shares, the stock will go up someday.
>Just my thought, but given that most PC users have
>absolutely NO idea what they are doing, they just
>buy why looks cheap and is advertised. I know,
>I have met many of them.
Ding, ding, ding. I’m in Office Depot yesterday trying to buy a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse for my Mini which is running on my 42 Sony HDTV. (Yeah, right…Logitech BT is not compatable beyond typing…that’s another post) Anyway, I’m standing there wishing for a larger Apple marketshare so I could actually find a keyboard that works in Office Depot, and some guy comes up to me holding a $20 PS/2 keyboard and a box containing $150 flat screen monitor. He says, and I’m not kidding, “Will this keyboard work with this computer.” I gently explained the difference between a monitor and a computer, which he did NOT understand.
So, if some 17 year old pimple factory talks to this guy, do you think he will EVER communicate information that allows such a guy to distinguish between an operating system and Nutrisystem?!? Try to explain to 90% of the world what an operating system is…or take a shot at the difference between RAM and a hard drive and why increasing the RAM doesn’t let you put more songs in iTunes. The greatest multimedia platform….hell, most people can’t figure out the printer settings to print pictures. THIS is what Apple is trying to combat, and they will never win. And the dirty secret is that Apple doesn’t care! They’re making the BMW of computers and are taking home a tidy profit.
I don’t care how many times MDN spews the “OS X is the best…blah, blah” line. IT DOESN’T MATTER THAT APPLE IS BETTER. The people out there buying the majority of computers are the guys who think you hook a PS/2 keyboard to a TV screen so you can buy stuff on eBay.
All this shows is that Jobs is out of ideas and that Apple is going out of business. No one is buying their products, the stock is crashing, and their hardware is twice the price of everyone else on the planet.
No one is going to purchase a stock PC with an Apple logo on it for 2x the going value. I expect Apple stock to be half of its value by the end of the year. If things go really well we could see Apple go out of business in the next 18 months from the lack of vision from the board and CEO of Apple.
Time to buy another Dell at rock bottom prices!
Everyone is buying AAPL assuming tomorrow it will go back up.
HAHAHA, nice joke.
Steve is too slow to bring out new things. He is now dependant on Intel to determine the fate of Apple. Trouble is everyone is also using Intel (and AMD).
I wrote this message on a PC a work, it worked just as good as writing it on my Mac at home.
When did Apple going bring out something new? iPod is 4-5 years old. OSX same.
Remember all those great rumors before MacWorld? Nothing has come out. No video iPod, media center, etc.
Well at least Apple brought out those “cool” iPod speakers….
If Vista gets any positive reviews this stop lots of movement to Macs (if there ever was any.)
Mac Realist… Ha Ha Ha HA HA hee hee hee! Stop, your killing me, oh that’s great…. hee hee… ok, tell me another one!
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There is something which I think is forgotten here; the global marketshare.
At present I am visiting the third largest city in the world, which is São Paulo in Brazil. I have checked out the prices for some Macs here and the new MacBook doesn’t go for around a 1000 US $ here – it goes for 2 200! Believe me or not!
I don’t know if Apple is aware of this totally insane pricing, but just imagine; this is a country where a monthly income of around 6-700 dollars is considered good… Maybe the idea is that most here are so poor that they can’t afford a Mac, anyway, so we will only sell to the stinking rich? You know, I think that it is a wrong approach.
In Portugal, where I live, the same MacBook sells for 1400 US and the average income in Portugal isn’t that high, either. At the same time, you find PC laptops in Brazil for 800 US and less and you find the same in Portugal. Of course, the quality is way, way beyond that of the MacBook, not to speak of the value of iLife.
But still; that is the harsh reality. I don’t know what the average income is in the US but I am sure a MacBook with the prices there, is much more affordable.
In addition to that, you have the Apple Stores which pop up like mushrooms on a fine autumn day, but countries like Portugal and Brazil don’t have a well-functioning Online Store, even. Brazil doesn’t have iTunes Music Store and you can’t order any fancy albums through iPhoto and you can’t even buy the Pro version of QuickTime – because you ahve to do that through the Apple Online Store…
So, Macs are overpriced in lots of countries where people earn a lot less then in the US, overpriced compared to what they are sold for in the US. In addition to that, people get less for what they pay for.
Add all of this up and you should be astonished that the market share is as high as it is!
I wonder if Apple is aware of this? And if they are, what is the idea? To increase the global market share? How?
The irony of it; the Magic Word is ‘business’! Hahaha!
100 computers sold in the world today; 98 will be windows, 2 Apple.
“we do agree that things don’t look good for Sony or anyone else who targets the “high-end” with OS-limited* PCs.
*Only Apple Macintosh personal computers can run the Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux operating systems and applications at native speeds.”
So peecees don’t run ONE OS, (OS X), and you call that limited? On my machine I’ve run just about everything except OS X. Thats because Steve Jobs is to stupid to realize that sales of OS X to REPLACE Windows would generate more than enough income to subsidise the building of Macs, iPods or what ever else. Just look at all the money Microsoft spends on non-OS endevors.
I often read about the Mac’s declining market share, yet Apple stores everywhere are mobbed from morning til night and report that half their sales are to first-time Mac buyers.
Something is wrong with this picture.
Perhaps Apple’s market share, like the unemployment rate, is determined according to the personal agenda of the party in power.
Mac Surrealist responds:
All this blags is that Jobo is prong of lee-lees and that Akopadia is florging tole of bloo-bloo. No flee-das is draying their tutumongos, the wetamastas is quay-quay, and their bonamonteetoo is gorbic the hui of Jonomo else on the yo-weeeeeeehoooo.
No jokomogo is going to rubrub a daproticmitic OW with an Akapadia logo on it for 4 to the 3rd freezoy the going suu-suu. I expect Akomonopadia covays to be fory of its bulge by the wenowanah of the poo. If trucka maga go hailey sedomachu we could gee-haw Akomonopadia-treewee go out of isolactobungness in the next 18 nuns from the lack of lopoarthroscopiscience from the danu-maka-aba-loporia and 9A+ of Akomonopadia-treewee-gahoooooo-wu.
Time to shine another Shubadoh at flucky wuzzy flushmush!
(Made just as much sense as Mac Realist’s insightful rambling.)
Ok, I am an avid Mac user, and this is going to come off as doom and gloom, but the fact is at this point in time:
—> Apple’s world wide market share is at 2.1 percent – FACT. Don’t try to twist it. Those are the hard numbers. 2.1%. Wishing for more is not a bad thing, but 2.1% is the current REALITY. If Apple’s shipments do not out-pace the rest of the industry, Mac market share will at best stay the same (note in article that Mac shipments increased 3.1% which is good – they sold more units, but the rest of the industry grew 13.1%). If Mac sales increased 13.2% (out-pacing the rest of the industry) in the same period, THEN they would have gained market share. Unfortunately they did not. Accept it, don’t lose any sleep over it, and enjoy your Macs.
Now……….
“But don’t expect sales to shoot up soon, says Samir Bhavnani, director of research at Current Analysis, who says the company’s market share could remain flat until the END (my emphasis) of 2006,” Rosmarin writes. “But Bhavnani predicts that Apple will begin rebounding this fall. So does Daoud, who thinks the company’s share could shoot up to 5.5% by the end of the year.”
—> Wait…did I miss something? Bhavnani states that market share will remain flat for the rest of the year, but THEN predicts it will start rebounding this fall. Sounds like a contradiction to me. Is it the rest of the year or until fall? Then Daoud predicts a 262% increase in market share by the end of the year (I’m going by world wide figures. It would still have to be a 157% increase for U.S. market share)! FNA! Wish it were so, but come on……..
“Mac is headed for mainstream and marketshare will certainly make 10% with ease…
—> I understand your enthusiasm, but a 476% increase in market share (world wide) is not going to happen any time soon.
“My clients own a lot of AAPL shares, PLEEEEZ humans, what are you doing, do not sell your shares, the stock will go up someday.
—> Yes, they MAY go up, but analysts were predicting a target price of $104 by the end of the year – NOT. Share price is NOT going to increase by leaps and bounds any time soon. For people who bought a few years ago, they made some serious money. Anyone who bought recently – forget it.
BEST AND MOST INSIGHTFUL POST IN THIS THREAD: macwolf
Thank you macwolf for putting a TRUE perspective on things.
:Yawn:
This entire thread can be summed up as:
PC Lover: “Apple is dying!”
Mac Lover: “Apple is taking over the world”
PC Lover: “You’re a retard.”
Mac Lover: “Your mom!”
As always, the truth is more complex than one or two statistics can reveal.
BAB, if you don’t see a difference between the Windows and Mac user experience, the Mac is wasted on you. Get a PC for home too.
As for Apple not having any new ideas, you must have missed the hundreds of new features in the past four revisions of OS X, the past few new versions of iLife, and the new Front Row with remote. For the pros there’s been updates to Final Cut Pro and the new Aperture. Not to mention hardware innovations like the flat-panel iMac and notebooks with motion sensor, light-sensing backlit keyboard and scrolling trackpad with new “right-click” function.
Once again, you get what you pay for.