“According to popular consensus, the much beloved iPod has boosted Apple Computer’s Mac sales and may ultimately help the company get into phones,” Michael Kanellos reports for CNET News. But five years of PC sales data paint a far more complicated picture than conventional wisdom would have it. Did the arrival and popularity of the iPod coincide with a reversal of an ominous slide in sales of personal computers at Apple? Yes. But sales at many other PC makers grew as well.”
“In fact, industry experts say other factors, such as lower prices and new technology, may have as much to do with the slow reversal of the Mac’s fortunes as the iPod,” Kanellos reports.
“Overall, Apple shipped 52 percent more computers in 2005 than it did in 2002. And so far, 2006 is shaping up to be a banner year. In the third quarter, Apple accounted for 2.79 percent of the global market and 5.71 percent of the U.S. market,” Kanellos reports. “How much of the surge can be attributed to the iPod? That depends on your perspective. Market share in PCs has jumped. A similar “halo effect,” theoretically, could give Apple a boost if, as many expect, it pushes into phones. But the iPod isn’t the only thing goosing Mac sales.”
Full article here.
It’s a combination of things that are boosting Apple’s Mac sales, not just one thing. In random order:
• Windows insecurity, frustration
• More knowledgeable, more tech savvy consumers
• Apple’s growing network of retail stores
• Mac product placement in media
• Steve Jobs’ keynotes and special events
• Apple’s robust financial health
• ‘Switcher’ and ‘Get a Mac’ campaigns
• iPod Halo Effect
• Boot Camp, Parallels offering Windows users a more palatable way to try Mac
• Lower Mac prices, price competitiveness with comparably-featured Windows PCs
• Mac users helping spread the word: “there is a better way”
• Excellent Mac reviews
• Excellent Mac OS X and Apple software (iLife, others) reviews
• iTunes for Windows Halo Effect
• Superior design
Related articles:
Apple’s Mac market share surges, up 35-percent year-over-year as growth accelerates – November 01, 2006
Analyst: Apple has ‘real shot at dramatically expanding Macintosh market share’ – October 31, 2006
Analyst: Apple Mac gains market share, the reason why is significant – October 26, 2006
IDC: Apple Mac attained 5.8% of U.S. market share in Q3 06 – October 18, 2006
Gartner: Apple Mac grabbed 6.1% of U.S. market share in Q3 06 – October 18, 2006
Apple Q4 earnings results: $546M net profit on $4.84B revenue, sold 1.61M Macs, 8.729M iPods – October 18, 2006
Gartner: Apple Mac grabbed 4.6% U.S. market share in Q2 06 – July 19, 2006
IDC: Apple Mac attained 4.8% U.S. market share in Q2 06 – July 19, 2006
Is it just me, or does it seem that news.com’s article was one of those types of in which a sponsored survey was established and a sponsored media outlet was utilized to promote the sponsored outcome all with the goal of trying to water down a massive increase in market share / install base for Apple computer?
In my case, the reason was simple.
I was sick of Windows.
Long weekend. They needed something to write about.
You forgot:
• Monkey Boy appointed CEO of Microsoft.
MDN’s take is factual and comprehensive – as opposed to the rather weak article.
It’s nice when MDN isn’t being vituperative.
On second thoght
“What’s boosting Apple Computer’s Mac sales?”
I think it is all the people buying them…
Originally I was looking to get a new PC, I hadn’t had any real problems because I new what I was doing but I was configuring the spec for a new model and looking at options to upgrade and I realised that ultimately to see any real benefit I was gonna have to spend a fair chunk of change. I then realised that I had fallen out of love with computing to the point where I thought to myself was it really worthwhile upgrading at all? Then I bought an iPod which even with MusicMatch was great, then iTunes came out and it was all just so easy. Then I bought a Powerbook. Then a mac mini for my family. Now I’m in my moral struggle as to when I should commit to an iMac or wait for something better, Ram to come down etc. It usually takes me 2 months to make a decision involving any amount of money this large.
Recently a friend said he was looking to replace his old, and rapidly aging, Sony VAIO with a newer laptop. I told him he would be absolutely stupid not to buy the finest PC on the market today, the MacBook Pro. His immediate reaction was that he couldn’t buy a Mac because there’s just not enough software available for that platform . . . to which I replied, “Depending upon one’s needs, the MBP can run every piece of software available today, whether it be for Mac, Windows, or Linux! Can a Sony VAIO do THAT?
After a weekend’s research on his own, he showed me the printout of his MBP order from the Apple Store.
ALERT: THE MAC RUNS MORE SOFTWARE TITLES THAN ANY OTHER PC IN THE WORLD!
Keep hammering home the message, brothers and sisters!
Fie on all of you.
(And keep the above news to yourself.)
Ehud, is that you using big words? I didn’t know you were a Mac user!!!
Dang, MDN… you looked so hard for the UNOBVIOUS, you sort of left out the biggies:
– superior, and incredibly cool, hardware (some sub-points could stand as their own reasons for Mac acceptance: construction, design, etc.)
– superior technology
– the Ive touch: superior aesthetics throughout
– a delightful end-to-end software experience
– killer backpack-style carry bags in the Apple Stores
Let’s fix that list, shall we? Hmm?
Gavron,
Thanks for the new word. V. accurate description. All I’ve got to do now is work out how to pronounce it!!
This Xmas quarter numbers are going to make an interesting read. I’m guessing 2M macs and 20M iPods. Profit will be off the charts cos Apple’s costs are going down fast.
MW “volume” – that’s a big deal.
Buck
That was a shockingly crappy good point.
All are legitimate reasons for Apple’s increase sales of Macs, MDN, but you ignore the counter argument for persons (mostly enterprise users) choosing Windows as their OS of choice or other manufacturers for their computers. If Apple wants to make any significant gains in these potential users, Apple will have to confront the reasons why these people still refuse to go Mac. For example, how significant is the endemic of legacy software in the PC world and the incompatibility of this legacy software with OS X? From informal discussions with IT folks, this is the biggest impediment to our organization going completely OS X. These people don’t see how switching from Windows to OS X will be advantageous in the long run much less worth the immediate time and effort.
I was impressed with the author’s link to the history of OS X develop. In particular, the seven years of stuttering steps that preceded development of Apple’s OS X. Microsoft repeated the same mistakes developing Vista as Apple did developing OS X, but Microsoft appears not to have succeeded in developing a substantially better OS. Like Ravi Zacharias says, “The only thing worse than nostalgia is amnesia.”
You forgot the alpha geek factor:
It’s Unix and that brought thousands of alpha geeks to the platform. Just go to a tech conference and there’s plenty of PowerBooks/MacBooks in the audience.
Back in 1999, the family bought a custom-made new computer with Win2K and unimpressed. I’d been using Windows all my life, didn’t know a thing about Macs or Amiga, etc. Win2k was a decent computing experience but that was just it; acceptable. I’d always been curious about Apple Macs as the hardware looked great and the OS always looked very clean and uncluttered but that’s all i knew about them.
I was hearing news about a new Mac OS and on paper it sounded amazing. In 2000, i needed a computer of my own and bought my 1st iBook (tangerine!) and never looked back. What interested me was the hardware but what kept me were the OS (9 at the time), great apps (like IE which was better on the Mac at the time) and the breathing iBook sleep light. Who would have thought of making something as crazy as that. I was hooked.
Buck Fuzzard,
What part of “Superior design” from MDN’s Take did you not understand?
you forgot: Apple Stores.
That’s the reason my in-laws bought one. There was a physical store they could go to and get help. Even if they never do, it’s a security blanket.
At MDN –
I don’t think that Steve’s Keynote has anything to do with growing sales, as it’s usually just die-hard Mac Fans watching them.
As I finally get my dad to convert to a Mac – the reason is simple. Macs work. You don’t have to worry about a video card not working with a software package, and a discontinued motherboard, and all those things. video, photo and other software are a lot simpler on a Mac, and they can run Windows as well, and you never have to worry about another damn Norton, or Antivirus upgrade.
Also, how about…
* Long-time Mac users upgrading their PowerPC-based Macs.
Mac remain useable for a long time. The release of Core 2 Duo, the upcoming release of Leopard (which will probably have Intel-only features), and the conversion to Universal of the remaining key pro apps (mostly from Adobe) will accelerate this trend in 2007.
There’s just something intangible about Macs that make them so special.
Everyone who’s got a mac or ipod has said “I love my mac” or “I love my ipod”.
I have never heard anyone say that about any other electronic device, let alone a windows machine.
For the record, I love my PPC Mac Mini! 😀
In my case, the reason was simple.
I was sick of Windows.
..but, it was a slightly harder decision in 1999 compared to today, which has to be the easiest no-brainer that ever existed.
Back then, OS9 was tricky at times, but still a heap better than dealing with auto exec.bats and all that other Windows shit.
You forgot the alpha geek factor:
It’s Unix and that brought thousands of alpha geeks to the platform. Just go to a tech conference and there’s plenty of PowerBooks/MacBooks in the audience.
You are me, and I claim my battered, dogeared copy of W. Richard Stevens’s “Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment”. I stepped up from an old VAIO running various flavors of Linux soon after my first encounter with OS X and haven’t looked back since.
ken1w:
Good point. The question is, “How many of those recently purchasing Macs over the past several years are switchers (the desired user group) or prior Mac users (the expected user group)?”
Its mostly that PC weenies can now also run Windose…
Its like a Crack addict, he just knows he can go back to this nasty habbit, if he needs to..