“A recent survey of twenty Apple Specialist retailers shows that approximately 25 percent of customers buying Macs are new to the platform and that the figure is likely to keep rising due to the iPod ‘halo effect’ and Apple’s Boot Camp software,” Katie Marsal reports for AppleInsider.
“The survey, conducted by PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster, also found that the majority of the value added resellers (VARs) are expecting to sell more Macs during the current quarter than they did during the three-mond period ending late September,” Marsal reports.
Marsal reports, “Although Apple has stated in recent quarterly conference calls that over 50 percent of Mac buyers at its own retail chain are new to the Mac, the analyst pointed out that Apple Specialist stores ‘have a lower new-to-Mac average given they typically serve more of the professional users and existing Mac faithful customer base. We see, therefore, the 25 percent new-to-Mac number at these stores as a fairly high number,’ he told clients in a summary of his survey findings on Monday.”
“Munster also reported that 60 percent of the 20 Apple Specialists indicated that they expect Mac sales in the December quarter to be up from those during the September quarter,” Marsal reports.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews 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
The long term success of aapl is hitched to OSX, the best OS on the planet. Ipods and iphones are just icing on the cake. OSX is where its at.
Besides the halo effect, there’s the horn effect:
Virus In System Terminated Activities.
A survey of TWENTY (20) resellers??!!?? Are you kidding? The sampling error for such a small group is absolutely enormous! This is COMPLETELY meaningless.
the conversion rate is higher than any survey could ever show. Many people are seriously buying Macs instead of waiting for Vista PC’s to come out. My support business has been booming because of this.
I have seen some die hard Microsoft supporters give in tho this juggernaught. Its awsome to see their face when you plug it in and it works with almost no tweaking!
I tend to agree with this:
Besides the halo effect, there’s the horn effect:
Virus In System Terminated Activities.
Jake,
yes, and there’re also sales in Europe, Asia, and Australasia to take into account.
HuskerMac, I thought it stood for Viruses Infections Spyware Trojans Adware.
Thanks God they’re growing in number, because if they were growing in size (height and/or width), i’d be really scared
I got my uncle to Switch to MacBook Pro last month and he loves it.
Jake,
20 is a small sample when looking at the number of computer owners in the USA.
20 is not a small sample when looking at the number of Mac VAR’s in the USA. I live in a city of over 1 million. We have only 3 Mac VAR’s and one of those is a Camera store. Remember big box stores, like Best Buy, that carry Macs too, are not Mac VAR’s. There is no value added at Best Buy.
I’ve been taking a lot of business trips in the past few months and the most surprising thing I see at airports is the number of people with Mac laptops vs. pc laptops. On my last flight there were 6 people with Macs and 2 with with PCs waiting at my gate. This has been typical at the last eight airports I’ve been in with the Mac to PC ratio being 3 to 1.
Despite what the market share numbers are, lots of people are buying Macs these days!
montex-
I have observed the very same! My guess is that the tsunami is well under way, and will be revealed as such, after holiday sales are tabulated.
I have observed the same thing as montex – I was surprised the last time I traveled by the number of *business* travelers using Macs. A year ago, I would have seen 0.
MDN word: make – as in make my company switch to Macs
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Keep in mind that some of these switchers may revert to Windows. They make never acclimate to the Mac, or they may be seduced by Vista. A guy who bought ahis first Mac (17″ Powerbook) about 18 months ago mentioned to me that he had recently sold it. I haven’t had a chance to find out why, or whether he replaced it with a Windows PC or a new Mac.
I got a friend to buy a MacBook and he loves it …except for the few things he loved about his windows piece of shit!?
I have no idea what those Windoze things are, but I am encouraging him to forget M$.
Even with a piece of good technology they still resist.
I think the “halo effect”is highly overrated. I didn’t own an iPod until it came free with my MacBook on a promo. Macintoshes are selling because they are great systems with great software and great prices. IMHO
“A survey of TWENTY (20) resellers??!!?? Are you kidding? The sampling error for such a small group is absolutely enormous! This is COMPLETELY meaningless.”
Not if you consider that there’s probably only about 20 independent Mac only resellers left in the world.