“It has been a bumper year for the California-based [Apple]. More than three billion songs had been bought through the iTunes music store since 2001, and that 110 million iPods have been sold worldwide,” The Telegraph reports.
“Apple sustained the momentum by increasing the capacity of its iPod range, giving it a facelift, adding a new selection of pastel-coloured iPod shuffles, and introducing video-playback to a thinner, squatter iPod nano. Oh, and it launched a mobile phone,” The Telegraph reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Not-so-minor omission: Apple also released the iPod touch.
The telegraph continues, “In all the brouhaha surrounding the iPhone launch, it would be easy to miss one of Apple’s biggest successes this year – the upsurge in sales of its computers. Apple shipped more than two million Macs between July and September this year alone, a 34 per cent increase on those months last year… If Apple’s rise continues, it may soon be able to think about posing a more serious threat to Microsoft’s dominance.”
“Bill Gates’s company seems to have been caught napping, failing to get to grips with a consumer demand for flair, innovation and beautiful design,” The Telegraph reports. “But more worrying for Microsoft will be the backlash against its latest operating system, Vista, released in January. Its snazzy new graphical interface wasn’t enough to win over many consumers. Vista makes heavy demands of computers, and lots of people found it sluggish and bloated. Such was the lack of interest that Dell began to offer computers preloaded with the older operating system, Windows XP, as an alternative.”
The Telegraph’s Best of 2007: Apple iPhone – While there is definitely room for improvement, its intuitive interface and stunning good looks have set the standard that all future mobile phones will be judged by.
The Telegraph’s Worst of 2007: Windows Vista – While it’s lovely to look at, this operating system can feel sluggish. It has perhaps shaken consumer confidence in the Microsoft brand, and goes some way towards explaining why Apple’s star is in the ascendancy.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Slowly they awaken.
Thorin,
I was looking at some old articles today and saw this one from about a year and a half ago that you posted on. I was wondering what happened to you and then I saw you here. A happy coincidence.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/10219/
@ Ampar
*$%&@#’n Unitarians…
“so almost every Vista machine is the result of the conscious choice of a consumer to buy one”
a conscious choice to buy a computer, yes, Vista, no.
i have worked with people who told me their OS was office for XP or internet explorer. most people have no clue at all what they are buying or running. i installed linux mandrake (years ago) over win98 and the only comment the lab users made was that the new version of windows i had installed was much faster.
ignorance is not always bliss….
Unitarians! Wow, I never heard of these people. Sounds like they believe in everything and nothing. ChrissyOne, have you ever considered becoming a nun? It might just be your calling.
my goodness Zune Tang has returned and has brought all of his M$ crap with him!
@ LorD1776
For some reason they don’t let atheists become nuns. Go figure.
“a conscious choice to buy a computer, yes, Vista, no.”
Sure, they just blunder into an electronics store and buy the first thing they see with a screen and a keyboard. And they repeat his behavior decade after decade.
“maybe you haven’t noticed that Macs come with OS X installed, not Windows.”
Yes but within a day or two of purchase most are running Windows under Parallels or Boot Camp. The VistaMac is not far away from launch.
“As long as they can operate as a monopoly Apple will never catch up. “
You’re correct, as long as Apple keeps a monopoly on OS X, they will never catch up. Their only hope to become the new Microsoft is to license the OS. Otherwise they will remain a small player with 3% worldwide share.
“Their only hope to become the new Microsoft is to license the OS. Otherwise they will remain a small player with 3% worldwide share.”
Alex, I’ll take Tired Old Saws for $1000…
last saturday i switched to MAC.
using a PC requires work. using a MAC means you get to play.
MDN was a factor in me deciding to switch – thanx.
Apple sustained the momentum by increasing the capacity of its iPod range..
Now only if they would increase the range of their computer line the world would be happy. Glossy only screens sell to the ignorant noobs, but experienced folks know it causes severe eye strain.
@pete1967: “I just wish I bought Apple stock in the 1990s when Sj returned to Apple, it was selling for $24 a share.”
I bought it at $7.49 in 2003. I’m showing a profit of about 60% since July of this year. It’s never too late to get aboard.
ChrissyOne,
Well I wouldn’t bet on that nowadays. I remember reading an article back in the 80’s where someone was surveying students at a seminary (I think Roman Catholic, but not sure now) and many of them said they didn’t believe in Jesus. The denomination doesn’t matter. Anymore it’s just another occupation. In many cases a very lucrative occupation. It doesn’t seem to matter what you believe, but what you profess to believe. Unfortunately, over the centuries religion and God have gotten the bad rap for those kind of self serving people. Religion (along with everything else) would work just fine if people weren’t involved. We really aren’t a very worthy species, sorry to say. I’m not an atheist, but I can understand why people are, with the world the way it is. All you can do is keep on keepin’ on.
@ To MDN
And, you know, it’s just plain mean.
I wish you luck with that. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Geez Pete, you and your glossy screen whining makes me think Zune Tang ain’t all bad. And that’s not good.
@ LorD1776
I personally think that the high-ups in the church really don’t buy it at all. Ask Mother Teresa. Once you get so high up in the machine, I think you start to figure out what it’s all about – exploiting people’s need for spirituality to consolidate power. I don’t think the average pope believes a word of it.
So maybe I could be pope…
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Wait until Apple hits the 200 million mark for sold ipods a year from now. What an amazing number of sold devices that will be.
Anyone think the iphone mini will be out in January?
“Wait until Apple hits the 200 million mark for sold ipods a year from now. What an amazing number of sold devices that will be.”
Yes, it’ll be about the same number of iPods as new Vista PCs sold by then.
ChrissyOne,
There ya go! Think positive! You’d get to wear a lot of fancy duds, that’s for sure.
“I’ll take Tired Old Saws “
Try taking Business 101 instead. No one vendor dominates the PC hardware market. Nor will Apple change that. The best that they can hope for if they want a Microsoft sized share of the OS market is to sell to those hardware vendors. Getting 94% share of worldwide PC hardware sales isn’t going to happen for Dell, nor for HP, nor for Apple, nor for anyone else.
@ Fn Obvious
You’re missing the point. MS is a one hit wonder. They created a business model that will never happen again. No company should ever have that much market control, and when they loose theirs, Apple, nor anyone, will take over. The market will change. That much is obvious.
He sure likes that “nor” word.
@ LorD1776
Yeah, but I’m not really a hat person…
“In many cases a very lucrative occupation.”
It’s also the one occupation in which you can continually molest children and your bosses and the victim’s parents will cover it up for you rather than tar you, feather you and ride you out of town on a rail.
It’s also one of the few occupations other than those which involve using Adobe products on a Mac where more of your workmates are gay than are not.
“MS is a one hit wonder. “
What’s that one hit? DOS 1 1o 6? Win 3.x? Win95? Win98? Win2000? WinXP? Vista? Word? Excel? Exchange? Outlook? Internet Explorer? Powerpoint? Windows Server editions? Halo? The list could just keep going.
Each of those had competition in their categories.
Seems to me they’ve introduced dozens of products which dominate their markets at the time.
What was Apple’s last product like that? the iPod? and before that the Apple II?
ChrissyOne,
Yeah, those rigs aren’t very sexy, are they.
Molesti,
I’m not going there dude.
But on a happy note:
Holy Crap! The Spice Girls are back together!