“Analysts and reporters like to talk about market share statistics, but the conclusions they draw are often misleading. Here’s a look at how those numbers are used to paint grossly inaccurate portrayals of the market share of the Zune among iPods, and alternatively the Mac among PCs,” Daniel Eran writes for RoughlyDrafted.
“Market share simply refers to the portion of a vendor’s unit sales compared to the overall market. However, most large markets include specialized niches that each act as a market. For example, within the overall market for vehicles are passenger cars, and buried within that major segment is the small but profitable luxury car market,” Eran writes.
Eran writes, “BMW doesn’t compete against ship and plane builders, nor even the entire line of cars built by GM. It would therefore be absurd to talk about BMW’s small share of the ‘vehicle market,’ or even to compare its market share among other car makers. It’s simply pointless and irrelevant.”
“Microsoft-enamored analysts have long been titillated to report Apple’s small Mac market share in comparison to all PCs sold worldwide,” Eran writes. “They are not as quick to mention that the definition of ‘the PC market’ ballooned as PCs makers pushed into markets unrelated to Apple’s business, resulting in a commensurate decrease of Apple’s share as the overall PC market rapidly expanded into unrelated directions.”
More about the iPod vs Zune, the difference between unit sales and market share, profitability, statistics, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, pretty graphs, and more here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “RadDoc,” “JadisOne,” and “Bill M.” for the heads up.]
As we’ve long said, actual market share numbers are limited by measurement methodologies. It’s a tricky business. Every measure of market share uses different samples and often excludes important sources (i.e. NPD’s market share percentages do not include Apple Retail Stores, Wal-Mart, Dell’s online sales, etc.). What really matters when looking at specific market share reports are the trends they show over time, if they use consistent methodologies. The trends are what’s valuable. All measures of Mac market share that we’ve seen show increases, regardless of the specific percentages at which they arrive; they all differ because they all measure differently. Mac unit sales continue to show year-over-year increases, as do iPod unit sales.
Related articles:
NPD: Apple #5 in notebooks, #1 in online songs unit share – March 13, 2007
Net Applications: Apple’s Mac market share continues rise, hits 6.38% in February 2007 – March 01, 2007
NPD: Mac sales grew 108% in January – March 01, 2007
Briefly: NPD data indicates Apple iPod units tracking above Street – February 28, 2007
Net Applications: Apple’s Mac market share continues rise, hits 6.22% in January 2007 – February 01, 2007
NPD: Apple iPod held 72% share of PMP market in December; Microsoft Zune had 2.8% share – January 21, 2007
Gartner: Apple’s U.S. Mac shipments up 30.6% year over year – January 18, 2007
Net Applications: Apple’s Mac market share continues rise, now at 5.39%, up 31% year-over-year – December 01, 2006
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
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 Legend of the Myth
Yeah, I assume then that because BMW makes less than 5% of the cars on the road worldwide, they must be on the verge of going under at any moment. On the other hand, I see tons of Fords out there on the road everyday, so that obviously must mean that they are leading the entire industry. That’s the same kind of argument a M$ fanboy would make anyway.
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Your Frustration. Our Fault.
Welcome to Business 101. I am an optimist and think most people realize this and will say, “yeah, so what?”.
But rather than stating the obvious, I think Eran should dig deeper into why people *don’t* question this crap when they hear it from the media. Anyone who is not a hermit knows that more than 3% of the computers in homes are Macs, but they hear a figure from “news” outlets and just think it’s true.
Bottom line, people are just sheep (think Pink Floyd).
Enjoy your weekend (I’m headed to Pebble Beach for golf )
Daniel Eran — legend in his own mind and official tourist director of the political fever swamp.
However you calculate market share, Apple’s share in PCs is clearly increasing.
Bottom line, some people are just dogs.
(thinking Pink Floyd)
Comparing cars to computers is ludicrous.
I expect another “Enron” coming from Microsoft. Falling sales, profits down, failed product launches. Give it some time. Ballmer is lose enough with numbers he will say the sky is blue all the while a hurricane is blowing everything away.
MS stock holders should get out while they can.
BTW, which one’s Pink (think wrong album…)
Sorry, that was a pig headed Orwellian slip….
In other news, Red Hat just launched a new Linux OS. Both customers are very happy.
To BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots,
Well, I don’t know about Eran, but you must have a pretty cracked skull from the “screen name” you used! LOL
I say, “Figures don’t lie, but liers can figure!”
I would be curious to see how the numbers stacked up if we compared computer sales of mid level and upper level computers (the kind Apple sells) to consumers (not business) and matched Apple sales to the other companies.
First the loss leader computers would drop off the map. Now we would be looking at “The buying habits of those people with a knowledgable choice”. I think it would be a very interesting chart. LOL I can easily see Apple being either third or even second in sales in the USA. Wouldn”t that shock the pants of a lot of people.
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TT: Are you showing your dark side?
I’ve still never seen a Zune outside of the display at a store…
The niche market place analogy is useful. I think it is contradictory for the author to then ridicule monkeyBallmer for wanting to compare Zune sales to only those at the same price point. Obviously, it is not descriptive of their position in the entire market, but it is legitimate to show how it is competing against similar devices. I would actually love to know their market share in this $249+ HD based player niche. I would be shocked if the monkeyBall’s numbers are correct. In fact, 10% would be surprising.
On a related note, are the numbers on sales at the Zune marketplace? By sales, I do not mean “points used”, but rather songs sold.
yes, wish you were here, but the wall is blocking my ummagumma…
What’s with you guys and BMWs? . . . Not everybody wants to drive a sports type vehicle. And BMW doesn’t rate that high on build quality. It has a cache that’s nice, but it has limited utiliity in most models. Overpriced?
Toyota and Honda have the best overall builds, but they price according to their reputations. Right now, model for model GM offers the best dollar value in the industry.
“rather”, as in wouldn’t you really rather have Buick?
I would rather have a Mercury Milan
Since Audi’s price is audi the ballpark…
Where does Eran find the time to write these long-winded Magnum Opii? Either he has no day job or no life. I generally agree with his points, but he fills his articles with so much barely relevant minutiae, it makes me want to scream. That last article about Quicktime and Final Cut could have been 1/10th the size and made the same point.
Total B.S.
This is what he bases his whole argument on – NPD numbers:
“Once again, NPD’s numbers only cover retailers that supply it with data, which excludes Apple, Costco, online sales, and mail order outlets.”
I was in Costco and asked the sales guy what the ratio of iPods to other MP3 sales were – others way outsold iPods.
If you talk units sold (not price of each), the others totally outsell iPod. We are talking lots of $29.95 low-priced MP3 players. 10 low-priced MP3 players equal one iPod. But that is 10 people that are not buying an iPod.
Busting,
Do you have an axe to grind with Dan Eran? I’ve noticed you comment in all the stories pointing to an Eran commentary.
“I would rather have a Mercury Milan.”
I’d rather have the cute chick in the Mercury Milan commercial.
Zune retailers are planning retrofit adapters for all Hudsons and DeSotos. This will be huge in Cuba.
reality cheq, but you are basing all your numbers from on Costco’s sales guy. so, your point?
‘Zune retailers are planning retrofit adapters for all Hudsons and DeSotos. This will be huge in Cuba.’
it does have that rust brown color going for it…
I think Apple is like a fancy thoroughbred that costs 12 millions dollars and a PC with Windows is like a run of the mill Ford Festiva. Unlike the Ford Festiva that requires gasoline as fuel, my thoroughbred requires just hay and oats. My Apple has a soft tawny coat and beautiful brown eyes, the Festiva has neither but is metallic and plastic. The Festiva requires a license to drive, by my horse doesn’t. The Ford spews noxious fumes but my thoroughbred just shits. Obviously, the horse is a better form of transportation than the Ford. My name is Eran and I’m a moron.
The logic of morons is inescapable.
THe plural of Opus is not Opii but Opera.