“If you are desirous of keeping a healthy perspective on the differences between mere objects and personal philosophies the best advice is not to buy a Mac,” Chris Seibold writes for Apple Matters.
“Why not purchase the world’s greatest personal computer? Because once you do you’ll fall in love with the Mac,” Seibold writes. “You’ll wonder why more people aren’t using one, you’ll want to spread the word, you’ll become a zealot. Inevitably, you will remain confused why the Mac isn’t more popular and then you’ll begin coming up with ways to fix the Mac’s low market share blues. Here’s the trouble, the ways to ‘fix’ Apple’s market share problems are all prescriptions for a malady that simply doesn’t exist.”
“The notion that Apple has a market share problem seems obvious, but it isn’t as bad as a quick glance at the numbers indicate. The breakdown between business computer purchases and home computer purchases is roughly a 66 to 33 split. Apple chooses to compete in what roughly amounts to a third of the market. Sure, it has penetration in professional graphics, scientific and the film industry but Apple is, by and large, a consumer computer designer,” Seibold writes. “With that in mind, Apple’s market share looks much, much better. In the arena Apple competes (by default, not by choice) it performs fairly well.”
Much more in the full article here.
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i don’t want everyone to buy a mac
i like the whole cult thing
I think the key is to remain profitabl;e, that’s it. More developers COULD be nice, but more software doesn’t mean better software.
Oh, boy, here we go again with the “what exactly IS market share?” punditry and postulation, not to mention – what does he mean by “market”? questions, etc. While it is a positive story, it’s a bit of a back-handed “attaboy”, and he hedges his bets by not actually naming numbers, which would really open him up to some scrutiny!
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“I have my Mac, so what if you don’t?”
I don’t care what you think.
Oh, yeah – R got that part right, too – what’s wrong with hundreds of millions of dollars in profit each quarter? Is it not enough?
Yet another stupid question.
Forget about enterprise marketshare. The IT world is content with Microsoft- job security in fixing a system that can never be fixed. Put’s food on my table, too. Personal computing needs a revival. Microsloth ruined it. Apple needs to take it back. Totally and Completely wipe Windows from the personal market.
No, actually, it is by choice, not by default. Steve has stated emphatically that Apple is a consumer company and he proves it every day through sheer elegance and brilliance in each and every product…..
Pixar rendered “Cars” using all DELL hardware.
If Apple can’t even win a gig with Pixar, they stand little chance in any other environment.
Shiny servers, pfft.
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=92075
There are only 2 issues I see with having a lower market share:
1) Developers will flock to the platform that will make them the most money. Right now, it’s Windows. This means that we don’t get some software.
2) Sheep, such as “No Koolaid Here”, will flock to the platform that “everyone else” is on. Therefore, with low market share, you are less likely to get the new user that goes to Wal-Mart to buy a computer.
Apple seems to be doing pretty well. They have not stopped innovating, their stock (until recently) has done very well, they have a good pipeline of products, and their OS is the best there is. I’m not concerned.
Grapes…
I have a thriving small business, in work that I love. It never fails to amaze me how many of my friends, who are stuck in corporate jobs (that deep down they hate), offer me advice to “fix” my business.
Much hot air and keystrokes are similarly expended here on “fixing” Apple. They have only tripled overall sales in the past 5 years, profits are way up, and the future is very bright indeed…so, yep, Apple needs alot of fixing from armchair CEOs.
Apple is just another Sirius, it goes up with hype then comes down slowly and no force can stop it.
I believe Apple deserves the majority of the home market.
You should want Apple to do it’s best. If Steve thinks they’re at their best, I’m good with that and will sell my shares. If there’s no growth left and Apple pays no dividend, my money is better served elsewhere and I need to get out of AAPL.
My opinion is based on the fact that I own a nice chunk of Apple stock that I bought for $10.03 (split adjusted) on October 19 2000 and the fact that the same stock is currently at $60 and has been at $80.
A small 1% increase of their current market share is almost a 33% improvement.
RE:Pixar chooses Dell
Well microsoft rendered xbox 360 demos off Powermac G5. If Microsoft chooses not to even use their own products thats even worse.
Link
“i don’t want everyone to buy a mac
i like the whole cult thing”
That’s what I thought the article was going to say. I find this obsession with the Mac cult to be rather embarrassing. People shouldn’t buy Macs because its cool to be in the select few. They should buy them because they’re <u>better computers</u>. It is as simple as that.
Nice try, “Apple is Lame”. You can’t compare Sirius to Apple. Not even close to the same thing. Then again, I’m assuming that you don’t know much about investing. If you did, you’d know that real investing is not looking at a quick short-term gain or loss, but at the long term.
Find yourself an investment site, enter Apple’s symbole (hint: AAPL). You may have already looked at the recent performance: 1 day; 5 day; 3 month; 6 month. Nice. Now, my uneducated friend, take a look at 1 year; 2 years; 3 years; 5 years, etc. You’ll see a little picture of a hill, that goes up over time. In fact, it’s a really STEEP hill. Not one you’d want to ride your bike up.
AAPL has been going up & down of late. On the long term, however, it will continue to climb. It will also probably split again soon. Since you probably don’t understand that also, I’ll explain why it’s good. A split in and of itself doesn’t change your investment at all. But what it does is signal that things are going well for the company – hence the split. It also gives little guys like yourself that don’t really know anything about investing (obviously) the chance to buy a few shares.
Good luck in your investing. If you are trying to make a quick buck on Sirius or other stocks, I suggest investing. Your way is just gambling.
Pixar chose Dell for “Cars”: Fine but that was just to get lot’s of CPUs to crunch and render, not for a full user interface and elegant experience that most of us want.
So basically they bought cheap systems, based on Intel chips and ran their proprietary “Renderman” app.
Big deal! Your attempt at comparison fails miserably!
MW: “about” It’s about the user experience!
Pixar chose linux server farms to render.
12 servers with 32GB ram in each one, using a paralell NAS solution for storage.
linux = free
they also went with throw away servers (dell) because after the movie was made they wouldnt need the antiquated hardware anymore.
since when does crunching numbers for 3D renders require the most advanced OS on the planet (OSX)?
also ‘apple is lame’ you must have just realized that apple existed within the last couple years; pull your head out of your ass.
When I started dealing with computers and technology (when I was 12 years old, over 20 years ago), researching, looking for the “new” and being on the cutting edge was the way to go. Even today, that’s what I enjoy about technology.
Unfortunately, I found a lot of system administrators who do not share the same passion for trying new things, and they better stay with the confortable establishment, and better not risk the status quo.
So, while growing up, I faced reality: The IT business is like any other business: There are active innovators and lazy bureaucrats.
For the innovators, those with the thirst of the new and better, the Mac (especially since Mac OS X) is a no brainer.
The answer to the “market share” question is simple: How many lazy bureaucrats are there in the SysAdmin business? Get your own conclussions.
Funny story: I was yesterday in a training session at work, and I was the only one showing my presentation in a Mac. When I switched from my PowerPoint to the application I was showing, I used Expose, and the crowd (about 40 people) were like “Ahhh!” and “Oooh!” It was very funny.
now say you are researching cancer, or decoding DNA, or doing somehting for science, or the government; thats when you go xserve. or OSX server.
http://www.apple.com/xserve/cluster/
Windows is like a flat head screwdriver… sure you could use phillips, better all the way around, but some idiot somewhere is going to insist on using a gd flat head screw in their product. therefore we will always need windows. because idiots wont give it up.
The fact is that when it came time for the company that Steve Jobs OWNS to get the highest performance, most reliable cost effective solution, they chose Dell. (& Linux)
Spin it any way you want, but the reality is what Pixar bought, and it WAS NOT OS X on teh kool shiny Xserves.
Re: Pixar chooses Dell
They just need a cheap, fast computer for their renderfarm. From the behind the scenes clips i’ve seen, I’m quite sure a lot of other work (design, lighting, etc.) is done using Macs AND Windows computers.
I prefer Macs but Windows has it’s place. There are still tons of stuff that runs on Windows and not on Mac: Chinese input is better on Windows. My sister’s found great programs for naturopathic medicine but they all run on Windows…
Jimbo,
I couldn’t have said it any better myself. I’m currently living FAT due to APPL.
The short term drops I view as buying opportunities.
I invest for the long term, but I have had an amazing short term return on APPL. I consider 1 to 3 years short term. Daily, weekly, monthly fluctuations are inevitable in most healthy stocks.
Be patient my friends! I’d much rather be a tortoise than a hare.
^^^^ HAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAAA!!!!!
trolls just dont get it…
q: why didnt they go with xserves?
a: the intel transition hasnt been completed yet.
HAHAHAAHAHAHAHA
as far as i’m concerned if you’re not running Linux, OSX, and Windows you are missing out, they all have advantages and disadvantages, and yes if I had to choose just one its a no brainer to go with OSX, but today any technologically advanced person / business can benifit from using all 3 for different things.
OSX: Everyday use, for 99% of everyhting that needs to be done.
Linux: server software, low price
Windows: Application Selection
Everyone should be tripple booting imho – if for nothing else than to just be familiar with whats out there.
And you cant change the fact that M$ used Powermacs to demo their XBOX360 titles…