“Mac is back,” Beth Snyder Bulik reports for Advertising Age. “Industry watchers are pleasantly surprised that it was Apple Computer’s design-inspired and user-friendly machine, not its small white music wonder, that bolstered the bottom line in the company’s just-reported fiscal third quarter. Apple shipped more than 1.3 million Macs in the U.S. for a 12% increase year-over-year. That puts it on the cusp of a 5% market share-the company’s biggest slice of the pie since 1998.”
“‘It’s not gigantic market share, but the momentum proves they’re doing something right,’ said David Daoud, analyst at IDC, who puts Mac’s share at 4.8%. ‘The numbers tell us the company is gaining traction.’ The rising numbers are important because Mac adds considerably more to Apple’s bottom line than iPod. And while 5% seems small, it’s not shabby in a highly fragmented market. According to Gartner’s latest U.S. data, leader Dell has a hefty 32% share, followed by HP with almost 19%, but the rest quickly dissolve into single digits: Gateway is at 6% and Lenovo has just under 4%,” Bulik reports.
“Analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies said ‘there is no question that Apple believes that the Mac as a platform is vital to its future.’ He added: ‘I think they’ll become even more aggressive in pushing the Mac as the center of digital living.’ If so, it’s got a ways to go. According to TNS Media Intelligence, Apple spent less than $7 million in measured media on Mac for the first 11 months of 2005, compared to some $57 million for iPod. Spending on Mac presumably has risen considerably this year with the new effort, though figures were not available,” Bulik reports.
Bulik reports, “The recent Mac success, of course, is still distant from its zenith in the ’80s. In 1986, for instance, Apple had a 16% market share and was the No. 2 seller of computers behind then-leader IBM. Even as late as 1990, Apple held a 10.7% share. Some optimistic analysts say Apple could once again reach a double-digit share in the U.S. computer market, but others believe modern market conditions will make that difficult, if not impossible.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The phrase “modern market conditions” is meaningless. Nothing’s impossible (unless you only use Windows). Apple will confound the naysayers once again. More and more people will wake up to fast, fun, and secure personal computing with Macintosh. Only Apple Macs can run Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. Dominant market shares can be lost and gained virtually overnight. It’s happened before in many industries.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Analyst: Apple selling more notebooks than Wall Street realizes – July 31, 2006
Apple brewing ‘Perfect Storm’ of Mac sales? – July 28, 2006
PC World writer’s advice for Microsoft: ‘Stop making crap’ – July 27, 2006
Microsoft about to lose the software business just as IBM lost the PC business in ‘80s – July 26, 2006
Survey shows big jump in consumer interest in buying Apple Mac; Dell takes steep slide – July 06, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
