“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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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
These numbers are obviously made up. PC manufacturers are selling more computers than ever and no one except for Apple fan boys are buying their overpriced and slow Macs. It is unfortunate that someone would twist these numbers around to make their company look better. We will probably see more of this when Vista is released and sales of Macs shrink to zero.
“no one except for Apple fan boys are buying their overpriced and slow Macs.”
I realize that I am feeding a troll but I need something explained to me. How exactly are macs slower than other computers out there? Almost the entire macintosh line is on intel and the PowerMac G5 can still hold its own against the competition. So, where does this slow business come into play again? I do realize that I enjoy logic rather than rhetoric and total BS which may be my problem. So, if you are going to make such claims you really should back them up. In fact macs are sold with the core duo processor while companies such as dell are still focusing on the pentium 4. Since the core duo is faster than the old pentium chips your logic of cheaper, faster PCs doesn’t really hold up to facts.
I don’t think logic is the only problem here. Seriously, why do you feel that Apple is such a threat to you personally? Do you have some feelings of being inadequate? While we love our macs we do realize that they are only macines. Perhaps a therapist can help you with your deep physchological issues. The message boards really aren’t the place for that sort of intensive therapy. Try google to find a qualified therapist in your local area to try and help you sort through these feelings. I wish you the best of luck on your journey to good mental health.
Let’s see here … getting out the calculator … an 11% share of the consumer market, that’s … nearly 4% of the TOTAL market. That’s not quite 5%, but it’s getting there.
This quarter is when consumer buying is heaviest, so Apple may actually exceed 5% in the quarter … before settling back a bit for the holiday season and again for the cold months. That “settling” may be minor, though, given the regular gains Apple has posted over the past several years. They’ve had only one quarter, recently, where their share went down – and their units sold were up even for that quarter … just not up ahead of Dell’s, Lenovo’s or HP’s.
Apple won’t gain a significant – double-digit – share of the market until it can make some real progress in the business – the Enterprise – world. There’s a whole world of computers out there where the lowest (somewhat reliable) bid takes it all. Dell (and HP, and Lenovo) can do that. Apple is making some progress with their servers – GREAT progress, given they were starting from 0.00% – but 90% of those business desktops can be served by a generic PC costing less than half the $1,300 of the least expensive iMac, or an all-in-one costing no more than a Mac mini does without the extras.
It’s not just the security blanket effect.
I’ve had to own a separate Windows PC for games for as long as I’ve had a Mac. With Boot Camp I fold those funds into on computer and finally upgrade from an iMac and a PC to a single Mac Pro when the y, hopefully, debut at the WWDC.
I think this motivates as many Mac users who are gamers as it does switchers.
I’m all for gains by Apple, but a problem with surveys(particularly political ones) is that they are infleunced by the way questions are asked. Further, often people will tell you what they believe the interviewer wants to hear.
I’ll gladly accept proven market gains; talk about what people say they might do in the future often is very meaningless.
This survey results are effected by Apple´s advertising campaign – so the results are not surprising.
What is surprising is how low the Apple numbers are. Apple has a major TV ad campaign and ONLY 8-9% of the total market has any interest in Apple computers (and that´s including how many computer owners that have a Mac)? That means 92% could care less about Apple – not good.
Excellent points by “jay” and “zeifort”.
I really want to see Windows’ market share normalized, but we are’nt going to do it with contrived numbers and speculation. We have to keep facing the reality of where OS X is in relation to the rest of the market.
For the Macintosh, reality is still harsh enough that it [reality] should be the primary motivation for changing the reality we still live in – and that reality is that, well over 90% of the entire world uses MS Windows each and every day, and each and every day people continue to recommend and buy WinTel machines.
Now lets get out there and give ’em heck!
Everybody should know that there isnt anything great about apple computers. PC computers such as dell,HP, Lenevo,and Sony are much better than macs. PC computers are actually cheap and powerful with high tech specs and can run any software and this is what makes PC computers successful. Macs have low power,low tech specs, and are very expensive for no good reason. Not everybody wants to spend a lot of money for a low power mac. Mac OS X tiger isnt that special because it is pretty much the same as Windows XP, but only with better security. You can do the same ilife, and iwork features on windows XP so mac os x isnt that good as people say it is.
Might? Could? Should?
I’ll tell you what – wake me up when Apple starts shifting a consistent two million CPU units every quarter.
Apple needs to be a $10 billion computer company in order to prevent it from becoming a latter-day Data General, who became a takeover target because of it’s Clariion disk storage products as opposed to its ridiculously overpriced computers.
Admittedly, I can’t see Apple being a takeover target for many companies – however, the company should have a slight bias to its computing products simply to maintain its culture of innovation and to stop Wall Street from seeing Apple as just another consumer electronics company.
Dell, your place has been prepared… alongside Tandy, Gateway, and IBM.
41% brand choice is still nothing to sneeze at. But when your choice skids from 55% in 3-4 MONTHS, yikes. A lesson that fighting to the bottom is always fatal.
Maybe Dell can take a cue from Detroit, and prop up their market share with employee-pricing sales or something.