ChangeWave survey shows plans to buy Apple Macs at all-time high

Apple “is attracting potential buyers like never before and is getting top marks in customer satisfaction,” Jonathan Ratner reports for The Financial Post.

“A survey of more than 4,400 people between August 4 and August 12 conducted by RBC Capital Markets and ChangeWave Research showed that 34% plan to buy a Mac laptop in the next 90 days, compared with 31% in May. Those planning to buy a Mac desktop rose to 30% from 27%. Meanwhile, 81% of those who recently bought an Apple product in the past 90 days were ‘very satisfied,’ while only 58% Dell Inc. buyers and 55% Hewlett-Packard Co. buyers said the same,” Ratner reports.

“Apple.com also appears to be the winner in online back-to-school buying, RBC analyst Mike Abramsky told clients,” Ratner reports.

Full article here.

23 Comments

  1. That curiously high satisfaction rate with Dell is only within 90 days of ownership. That value must declines sharply over the length of ownership, as customers become mired in spyware, viruses, cancel or allows, and Dell’s horiffic outsourced customer support.

  2. At least 58% of people have no taste, don’t know any better, or simply don’t care… that’s why 58% of Dull buyers are supposedly “very satisfied”. Think of what % of people have still never tried out an OS X Mac… those people don’t yet know how much better the experience can be.

  3. There’s no question that many folks that ” Don’t like Mac ” never tried them or tried them 20 years ago. and formulated a rigid opinion. If they walked into an Apple Store and got a demo, they’d change in a heartbeat. I only know one idiot, an engineer, that hates Macs. He of course has never tried them. He also is like some of the IT guys that think that you should have to be an engineer to use a computer. He’s also a cheapskate.

  4. “I only know one idiot, an engineer, that hates Macs. He of course has never tried them. He also is like some of the IT guys that think that you should have to be an engineer to use a computer. He’s also a cheapskate.”

    But a dear friend?

    Oh wait. Is that the guy that was chased down the street by a rabid Mac IIvx that bit him on the butt and then he woke up drenched in sweat and tears? I think I know him. He reinstalls Windows every two weeks just for fun.

  5. I can see people being satisfied with a Dell or HP PC and still being severely pissed off at Windows and Microsoft.

    It all depends on the wording of the survey taker’s question.

  6. I am planning on purchasing a $5,000,000 home in Los Angeles, a Ferarri F430, and a Lamborghini Gallardo also. I’m planning on doing this within the next 6 months, as soon as lottery ticket comes in.

    Surveys. Bah.

    Apple will always be a boutique manufacturer of computers and I believe this is what they want.

    Anyone who knows anything about computers knows that the box isn’t the Mac. It’s OS X.

    If Apple wanted to break out of the low market share area, they’d simply allow Macs to be cloned. It would be very simple. Create hardware specifications, and certify the makers. Take a percentage, and sell them OS X licenses.

    Pay a lot more attention to the enterprise and education market space.

    Apple doesn’t want to break out of the low market share ghetto though. They like it just fine there, and its working for them for now.

    You can’t argue with continuously beating Wall Street estimates and 20+ billion dollars in cash in the bank.

    So who cares if more people than ever are thinking about buying Macs.

    Certainly not Apple.

  7. @StarkReality

    Apple has no reason to allow clones. It’s OS X that makes the Mac, but it’s the Mac that makes the money. The markup is higher on hardware. The purpose of OS X from Apple’s viewpoint is to sell Macs. Why would they hand over the profit-making part of the business to the clone makers and keep the loss leader for themselves? Whatever Apple might be, they aren’t suicidal.

    Apple might as well throw money out the window as license clone makers.

  8. @StarkReality

    Two words: Vertical Integration.

    Some companies make software, some companies make computers, but no one makes both and integrates them as well as Apple. This is a crucial part in Apple’s ability create smooth and consistently great experiences for its customers.

    If Apple gave up on the hardware front, they would be like the many Linux distributors: A theoretically great OS if you can get all the drivers and software to work on your hardware.

  9. I think it’s great news that Apple is finally reaching people like never before – however, I simply hope the company can keep up with the demand, too.

    Steve has said on many occasions his worst ‘nightmare’ would be for Apple to be ‘as big as’ MS. Plus, if Apple owned the entire computer market all they can do is tread water until the inevitable fall (see Microsoft)…

    The point is, Apple will probably prefer to be surrounded by competition (no matter how crap) so that it gives them something to innovate against.

  10. One thing Stark Reality got right is that Apple is a “boutique” computer maker reveling in their small, if growing, market share. Apple doesn’t want to compete for the half of the market wallowing in the cheap end of the pool. Sure, they put the mini out there, but is that a serious attempt? Solid? Sure. Serious? Enh! Sure, Apple has some more growing to do … maybe into the low double-digits … but there is a limit as to how many BMW-class computers you can slip into the market.
    If the MS Goliath is to be slain, it will take a different David to do it. Well. OSX has done a good job of seriously wounding it, but it can’t finish the job. Will Linux step up with a satisfactory user-oriented client to do the job? Will Sun do the same with its smaller version of its OS? Whatever it is, it has to be easier to use than Windows – neither of those mentioned are that – and more reliable – and both are that. Both need to learn that at least 90% of all computer users are NOT “geeks”, do not WANT to become “geeks”, and will stay with Windows if it is the one, the only, easy-enough option at the right entry point. It doesn’t have to meet the Apple standard, but all the drivers need to be in place at purchase.

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