“Apple Computer could make some big gains in the education market during the back-to-school shopping season this year,” Patrick Seitz reports for Investor’s Business Daily. “A new survey by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence shows a big jump in consumer interest in buying Apple’s Macintosh computers, especially desktop models.”
“The same survey shows PC giant Dell losing ground among likely PC buyers. Meanwhile, rival Hewlett-Packard is showing continued strength among consumers heading into the fall shopping season. Among likely PC buyers in the next six months, Apple tied with Hewlett-Packard for the No. 2 brand overall. Both were the brand choice of 11% of prospective buyers in the early June poll by TechnoMetrica,” Seitz reports. “Dell was No. 1 with 41%. But that’s down from 48% in May and 55% in April.”
“Apple’s bet on Intel processors for its Macintosh computers appears to be paying dividends, analysts say,” Seitz reports. “Among those saying it’s likely they’ll buy a new desktop PC in the next six months, Apple was the No. 2 preferred brand, with 16%. That’s the highest number for Apple since TechnoMetrica began collecting purchase-intent data more than two years ago. In May, 6% of likely desktop PC buyers said they would choose Apple.”
“Apple’s recent rise in popularity can be attributed in part to a “rub-off effect” from its market-leading iPod music players, says Constantine Kambanis, an analyst at TechnoMetrica. ‘The Apple brand — thanks to the iPod — has gotten far more exposure among average consumers, who are thus more likely to consider other Apple products,’ he said. Survey respondents say positive word of mouth has helped sell Apple’s Macs as well,” Seitz reports.
“Apple has been heavily promoting its Intel-based computers lately, including its iMac desktop computers and MacBook laptops… College students who buy any Mac computer can get a free iPod Nano music player with a mail-in rebate as part of a back-to-school promotion that runs through Sept. 16,” Seitz reports.
“While Apple has seen its popularity rise, Dell has taken a steep slide among consumers in recent months. Among likely buyers of desktop PCs in June, 39% said they preferred to get a Dell. That’s down from 51% in May and 60% in April. Among likely buyers of laptop computers, Dell fared only slightly better. Its computers were the choice of 42% of respondents in June, down from 48% in May and 54% in April. Still, in last month’s poll Dell was the No. 1 choice in laptops, followed by HP with 14% and Apple with 7% of respondents,” Seitz reports. “TechnoMetrica has been tracking the home computer market since April 2002. The research firm surveys more than 900 U.S. adults in random phone interviews each month.”
Full article, with a nice graph showing how Dell, HP and Apple have fared in the survey over the past year, here.
MacDailyNews Take: The proof mounts. We sure hope that flash we just saw was finally the dawn of the personal computer renaissance. Sheesh, better late than never, huh?!
As we wrote back on April 13th: While we’re not a research firm by any stretch, we do have our own checks and are able to take some measure of the pulse of what’s going on in the Mac world. Our checks indicate that Mac sales (MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini) have picked up significantly since the Boot Camp debut and corresponding press coverage. The information we are seeing allows us to confidently state that… the ability to run their Windows “insecurty blanket” on Macs is causing people to buy Macs. The idea of buying one machine and getting both OS worlds is very appealing, it seems. Once they try Mac OS X, what usually happens will happen with them, too. More and more Mac OS X use with less and less Windows use.
[UPDATED: 8/6, 11:02pm EDT: Fixed truncated link.]
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WEEEEEEE!!!!!!
Yep folks, this is where it all starts…..
Now hopefully Apple will manage to accurately predict demand as well, and keep production up with it!
I remember many years of demand outstripping supply of new Macs.
Well, I have my own resources and the secret is this.
Apple store employees are selling Mac’s to PC users with the intention that they go home and install XP on it from their previous PC.
So yes the “security blanket” effect is indeed at work here.
The object for Redmond is to match Mac OS X in looks and security, which they are trying to do now.
Microsoft is gambling all those with dual OS’s on their boxes will just stay in Vista finding dual booting a pain in the arse. (forget virtualization with Vista)
So the question of course is what is Apple’s next move?
Will they advance so much that it makes Vista look old already or will they give up and become a PC vendor?
Rub off effect. heh heh heh. Gotsta’ get me some a dat action. heh heh heh
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Apple Computer could make some big gains in the education market during the back-to-school shopping season this year
Sensationalist headline.
The fact is the cheapest “all in one” Mac is twice the price of a Dell and it includes Windoze.
I’m telling you the truth, getting a cheap all in one into more peoples hands will make them want a real Mac, like a Tower.
Sell a stripped iMac with just enough performance to email and web, they will get tired of it quick enough and want to move up once they become adicted.
Apple needs to work more like crack dealers, the first hit is cheap and short.
Why do journalists give credit to the questionable iPod halo effect, yet ignore completely the Apple retail chain crowned by what is currently The Finest Retail Store In The World, the New York Glass Cube?
Why?
Channel Z (MacDude anyone?),
If and when Vista finally DOES come out several things will be true regardless of what they do.
1. It won’t come with any truly useful or bundled apps as part of the deal.
2. It will still require a certain measure MORE security effort than the Mac OS
3. The Mac OS will STILL be more advanced (about this there is no argument, even among most experts).
4. While newer Macs will be able to run ANY Windows program the sheer elegance and draw of the other built in software in iLife like iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD not to mention the use of iTunes (which will likely NOT operate on both platforms interoperably..at least not the library) will tend to keep people on the Mac OS
5. The kludgy nature of Vista will still be there…Try comparing Expose on the Mac to the wierd tabbed step through scheme that Vista will have…
While the universe will not turn upside down for some time to come in terms of market share, more people, over time WILL migrate to the Mac.
It’s so incredibly obvious that even someone of your limited intellectual capacity will be able to detect it.
Major Crack Head…
you must be!
How many times must we go through this?
Twice the price?
Factor in iLife suite, lack of expenditure on spyware, maleware, adware, bla bla bla.
Go download an MS patch or something, DIPSHIT.
It’s great hardware at competitive prices and if you really need to run Windows, you can….
The only computer on the market where you can run both and soon all three (linux).
You simply can’t get a better desktop at a better price than the Mac Mini Intel Core Duo.
I’m rather fed up with all this talk about market share gains. The current state of Apple’s financial health shows that market share isn’t everything.
What’s the point of having all the market share in the world then having to deal with production problems and quality control issues and razor thin margins.
Apple is doing very well as it is. I’d much rather drive a Merc or BMW with a similar maarket share to Apple than a GM.
Profitability is what matters and Apple has cracked that nut with a nice big pile of cash in the bank.
A big market share has never been associated with high quality in any industry. Dull and Micro$haft prove that is certainly the case in the computer industry.
Factor in iLife suite, lack of expenditure on spyware, maleware, adware, bla bla bla.
iLife, eh, it’s ok. not needed in a school enviroment really.
spyware and other malware?
easy solved with a master clone and certain “freezing” software, a simple reboot and all changes are automagically erased.
for a mac it’s called Deep Freeze, makes it handy keeping a boot drive in perfect condition, just use file drives for files and other changes
Well, guys I’ve been saying it repeatedly: 17% to 23% market share (consumer).
You guys used to laugh at me and say that was vastly unrealistic.
This article states: “Among those saying it’s likely they’ll buy a new desktop PC in the next six months, Apple was the No. 2 preferred brand, with 16% …”
Now, how far off do you think I was?
And the year’s not over.
Wait and see what really happens!
You ARE a crack head, aren’t you?
How does popcorn pop?
Explain for us all.
Now, what percentage of the populace cares?
(answer- .05%).
See? Just like I said, recent surveys indicate demand for Apple’s products is dropping like a rock!
Channel Z:
“So the question of course is what is Apple’s next move?”
I agree that Apple’s approach is to get Apple hardware into users hands – they don’t care what they run on it, Mac OS, Windows, Linux – it doesn’t matter, it still shows up as a Mac sale in the market share numbers.
Apple’s idea is that it’s very difficult to get a Windows users to switch, if they have to buy a whole new computer to run an OS they’ve never used before. So Apple do it in 2 stages:
1st stage – get the Windows user to buy hardware (exclusively from Apple), that can run both Windows OS & Mac OS.
2nd stage – of the percentage that continue to run the Windows OS on their new Mac hardware, entice them over with software.
3rd stage – Apple will start to release software (and possibly hardware), that you can only run in the Mac OS.
Apple is waiting until the number of Windows users running Windows on Mac hardware reaches a good number, and they will then release ‘something’ that will exclusively run only in Mac OS X to entice them over.
Even if your typical Windows user (running Windows on Mac hardware), boots into Mac OS just to ‘try out’ this amazing piece of new software (or hardware), it gets them into the Mac OS for a while. Apple only need do this a few times before the Windows user starts to boot into the Mac OS more and more, and then the user is fully converted.
What is this hardware and software – who knows?
We’ve already got iLife, and I bet that these future releases have got something to do with .Mac, the iPod Video and the iPhone.
Have you ever seen the book “iLife in the Classroom”? Especially iWeb which lets students build class web sites.
If Apple can come up with a Student/Teacher version of Keynote and Pages, they could free the education community from the dominance of Micro$oft. I’m already experimenting with Mariner Write to see how it handles Word files; may go with the MarinerPac (Write and Calc) instead of Pages since Apple doesn’t seem interested in putting out an Excel-killer.
MW=fine; a world without Micro$oft is just fine with me…
Personally, I’m not that impressed with the data in the article. The graphed survey data don’t show any convincing trend. The variations in customer preferences during the past two years are so wide (for all three computers) that it’s hard to believe the results from the last three sampling periods constitute a trend. They are more likely random variations. I expect the standard deviation of the data is very high. The authors don’t describe the survey method or state the sample size or the expected sampling error. Like almost everyone else in this blog, I would love to see Apple gaining popularity and market share. I’m not arguing that they won’t; just that these data doesn’t support that conclusion or MDN’s title.
You guys are hyperventilating over worthless data on a chart.
Despite all the ups and downs of interest in Apple computers the chart shows – U.S. market share for apple is around 3%.
The HP and Dell charts are quite reflective of their market shares.
And the chart for Apple vs Dell is visually misleading because if makes it seem like Apple has the has more. But that is because the graph is on a different scale than the other two graphs.
And its just a “what computers are you interested in” question – please check as many as you want.
The proof is in the buying.
When Apple market share is around 8-10% then you all can hyperventilate.
But why Apple market share matters to anyone here well that´s a different thing to puzzle over.
Ladies and Gents,
Start your engines. The ride is going to be fun.
Ohhh, and, “rub-off effect”???
Can’t they just use “iPod halo effect” like everyone else? This isn’t a massage parlor, you know.
Rumors are fun, but on July 19 we find out about some harder numbers, last quarter’s sales.
I think Apple will pull off a major coup against the competition. It will go in stages, but once some rough threshold is hit, Apple will be seen as the winner and sales will rocket up as the average Joe sees where the herd is going — stampede, yee haaaaaaa!
“But why Apple market share matters to anyone here well that´s a different thing to puzzle over.”
Market share means continued development on the platform and decreased ability by M$ to proprietize the web. Better for us.
The more computers Apple sells, the increased likelihood that quality control will drop. I would rather a lower market share (Apple is healthy financially) and higher QC. I am willing to pay a little extra for that.
Major Crackhead….you are such a dork. Sell a Mac with little power and people will upgrade? No, they will say OMG I bought an underperforming POS and will switch back to a $1.49 Dell which they can toss out and replace yearly.
1. Apple should make the new educational iMac available to the general public. $899 for an all-in-one that looks as good as the iMac would prove to be a very compelling purchase even when compared to the $599 bundles that Dell and others put out.
2. Apple should include a coupon for a Mac on every iPod box. Buy a Shuffle get a $50 coupon towards a Mac. Buy a Nano get a $75 coupon. Buy a video iPod get a $100 coupon.
3. US market share is closer to 5% (but not quite there yet). Worldwide marketshare is around 3%.
4. More market share means validation of what we all know. The Mac is better. In the past year I have personally converted 5 people from PCs to Macs. And now working on three more. It has become easier (three conversions) since Boot Camp and Parallels came out. The need for the insecurity blanket is real.
Dell hosed their customers for too long. I don’t know anybody who “loves” their Dell. Some tolerate Dell and use them because they’re cheap but without something compelling other than low cost, Dell is headed DOWN!