“The growth in Mac adoption has been driven by several factors, everything from Apple’s conversion to an Intel-based platform with several virtualization options to run Windows to the Webification of corporate applications, the rise of software as a service, and Apple’s dramatic ascendance in consumer mindshare,” Erlanger reports.
“A key reason for growing Mac acceptance in business is a significant change in corporate IT: an increased willingness to let down the fortress gates and let employees use the systems they feel most productive with.
“The Baby Boomers were happy if technology worked,” says Benjamin Gray, an analyst at Forrester Research,” Erlanger reports.”‘They’re rapidly being replaced by much a younger, more technology-savvy generation that grew up with access to smartphones, handheld devices, and the full Internet in their pocket. These guys have a much greater passion for whatever devices and applications they feel they need in order to be productive.'”
There’s much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Do you think the world is suffering from a collective case of “Ignorance Lag” when it comes to the Macintosh? I do. What is “Ignorance Lag” you ask? Okay, I’ll explain, but I’m dropping the quotes, it’s Ignorance Lag from here on out. Ignorance Lag is a term I invented to describe the period of time between the debut of something and the moment that the masses recognize that this something exists and understand its purpose. Once a product’s Ignorance Lag ends, rapid and widespread adoption usually takes place if the product is any good.
The Ignorance Lag for the Macintosh computer is still active. I can go out onto the street and pick twenty people at random and most of them have heard of Macintosh computers, but on average, only one of them has really used a Mac and understands why it’s different. The other nineteen are still in Ignorance Lag… but now, with… the Apple retail stores actually providing a place for the masses to lay their hands upon a functioning Mac, I think that end of the Mac Ignorance Lag is finally looming.
The problem with the Mac’s Ignorance Lag is, as usual, Windows. Windows prolongs the Mac’s Lag effect because it tries so hard to copy the Mac. People have to spend a little longer time with the Mac now to recognize its value and superiority over Windows. It’s not as easy as comparing early versions of the Mac OS to DOS, but it still works. Nine times out of ten, I’ve found that putting a Mac onto someone’s desk at work, someone who’s never or not recently used a Mac, results in them buying a Mac for their home. It’s predictable, but it takes time and they have to be able to use the Mac for real tasks to recognize why it’s so special. That’s why each Apple retail store that opens is so terribly important for the Macintosh platform. Those Apple stores are more than blonde wood and glass; Apple’s ending the Mac Ignorance Lag one store at a time.
– SteveJack, MacDailyNews, November 26, 2002
The full article and its followup are listed in the related articles below.
I would like to formally request that SteveJack post his picks for the upcoming Super Bowl, The 2009 World Series, the 4 majors for both golf and tennis, the 2008-09 Premier League champions, and Win, Place, and Show for this year’s Kentucky Derby, The Preakness, and The Belmont Stakes.
Daddy’s got a 17-inch MacBook Pro (und a mansion, und a yacht) to buy, you know.
Been a Mac user from the early Mac Plus, have one now a MBP which I’m writing this.
Picked up a copy of Consumer Reports yesterday which Apple was praised quite a bit for reliable OS and machines…But…
Apple has a computer near the top in nearly every category except the most popular and used types of computers. Especially one’s found in businesses and schools.
1: A low cost expandable tower $500-$700 range.
2: The same tower as #1 but more performance, $700-$1000 for gaming and graphics.
These high volume categories are clearly owned by Dell and HP.
Sure I know what your going to say about Apple not playing in the “low margin” categories.
But HP is making a killing invading Dell’s space, it bought Compaq to do so. HP’s stock is rising and even invading Apple’s space with innovative types of computers.
The business space needs reliable computers, they buy thousands even tens of thousands at a time. OS X is a highly reliable OS, and in these tough economic times, makes sense instead of buggy, IT costing, cheap PC towers.
If Apple invaded the low cost tower space below $1000, they would own it for sure and the world would use nothing else, because OS X runs so well…
I think it’s time for Apple to act.
What MDN describes was first espoused in a book called “Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley’s Cutting Edge”.
The Mac’s ascent from obscurity to the edge of widespread acceptance follows the author’s premise almost exactly.
MacOSX is on the verge of entering the final stage before mass adoption: the TORNADO. I expect the tornado to be complete by the end of 2010. After that it will be MSFT that is beleaguered.
Apple has ignored the low end market for a very good reason. Nobody in that market is making any money.
Look at Dell’s margins, then look at Apple’s. Apple’s share is growing, while Dell is struggling. Apple gross margins average 33%, while Dell struggles to achieve 18%.
Simply put, Apple’s share of the high end market is 70%. This is where computer profits are being made. It is not in volume. That’s a loser’s game.
The number of firms that have tried to win using price as their differentiator, and failed, is long, very long.
Not to mention that laptops are now outselling desktops, and that trend is growing.
Windows Ignorance Lag = blue pill
Mactrix Revelations = red pill
Gregg Thurman writes, “Apple has ignored the low end market for a very good reason. Nobody in that market is making any money.” Were Apple to sell at a comparable price (adjusting for cost of Windows vs. OS X), Apple’s margins would certainly suffer. But who says it can’t be sold at a more suitable price?
But I can tell you one thing for sure. Many businesses won’t accept Apple’s one-year warranties when other name brands offer three.
I spent some time about Apple going after low cost computer market. Then I realized 80-20 rule applies to computer market too. In the case of computer market, 80-20 rule is 80% of profit is made by 20% of computer sales. In another words, Apple only needs 20% of market share, if they can take away 80% of profit in the market. Let Dell, HP and others fight over the 80% of market share and divide the 20% profit. Apple seem to be getting close to 80-20 in the cell phone market. As an investor, I hope they can come close to 80-20 in PC market too.
@ Raymond in DC,
Other name brands need three years warranty just to convince IT departments to buy their crap.
When’s the last time a Mac was DOA.
Apple has a 3 year warranty called Apple Care. Other PC companies don’t give that 3 year warranty away for free either. They name them service contracts, and if you don’t see a line item for it on the invoice then a per unit cost is added to the final invoice and not broken out. Service organizations in these companies have to be paid for. Properly designed PC’s make service organizations profit centers. Dogs make them a losing proposition.
It is not ignorance that is lagging, it is enlightenment.
Enlightenment Lag.
Hey, I know Ignorance lag sounds more derogatory, condescending, and provocative – but it is inaccurate.
SUN was right in that “the network is the computer”. As long as we can plug into the network i.e. server then we can work our computer.
Now that the executive key to the network has been taken away from MS through Exchange support on iPhone (and upcoming Snow Leopard), virtualisation (Parallels & VMWare), Google’s free synchronisation services, Linux’s impact in the server room opening up standards and FireFox’s impact into PC browsing, the choice of interface ‘computer’ will be improved.
Most large enterprises I know of have already moved most interfaces to the web so they can avoid the $billions of upgrading from XP. The next more is to a rich mobile platform. The choices here are NetBooks or smart phones. Apple better find a solution for NetBooks, even if it is expensive.
Jon1,
exactly!
MDN got that one wrong. An ‘ignorance lag’ sounds positive, a sort of double negative.
‘Enlightenment lag’ is more accurate.
Ignorance lag implies that Apple came out with the Mac sometime after Microsoft came out with Windows – which just isn’t so.
I think it’s just plain ignorance and the so called “voting with your wallet” syndrome. Sure you can buy a computer for $200.00 but is really worth it once you have to trash it in 5 months?
Sooner or later people get tired of mediocrity and want true value for their hard earned cash. And that comes from Apple.
But really it is OS X. That is what people want to work with. Look at all the PC cloners trying to shoehorn it into some homemade box. OS X baby OS X.
I’d have to agree with Jon1 and ‘enlightenment lag’.
I’m a Baby Boomer that started worked with Apple computers in 1978 and I won’t even touch anything else.
Apple’s computers simply work and are the best bar none.
The Netbook is the low end of the laptop market. It’s a throwaway market created for the bad economy time and a bate and switch product. Because they’re so cheap retailers can afford to sell a few dozen per store or so, as lost leaders items to drag buyers into the stores. The fact is Netbooks sell with such thin margins I would doubt that anyone is making much of a profit from them, except suppliers of the build components.
Less face it, the Netbook is a gimmick for the poor economy and will die a quit death as the economy improves.
“Ignorance Lag” is also being wiped out in colleges now that 1 out of 3 students are using a Mac.
If 30% of the young people with Macs are replacing 90% that are senior citizens that only used Windows, then with every birth and death the Mac gains market share. The greater the growing percentage of young people the faster the switch. The iPhone and iPod touch halos will move it even faster.
I think Mac will have a 20% market share in less than 2 years!
@ not so Wise Man
YOU ARE WRITING ON A MBP.
This shows that everything else you wrote is irrelevant.
Wow…another InfoWorld article, another prediction of a tsunami of Apple products swamping the corporate environment, despite the utter lack of real-world trends. Talk about redirected Apple ad copy…and the MacDefenseNetwork thinks M$ pays for press. Please.
Next on deck; Mossberg thinks the changes to GarageBand are a revolutionary step forward for businesses everywhere!
This notion that “the baby boomers were happy if technology worked” is idiotic. What generation does he think CREATED technology? Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc., ARE baby boomers. And from experience with both types of users, it seems it’s the Windows crowd as a general user who are “happy if it works”. They are taught by experience that “just working” is unusual so therefore be happy if it does.
Mac users EXPECT it to work because that is the philosophy behind Apple’s products. Bill & Co. are in it to make money and the decisions and products they’ve made reflect that. Steve & Co. are in it to make cool stuff that looks and performs to that standard and making money is a necessary evil. If they didn’t have to do it for money which crowd would still be in the labs late at night creating stuff… Bill & Co. or Steve & Co.?
A lot of people have wasted money on Windows machines; especially the cheap ones that wind up in a closet a few months later because they no longer work. They are now wiser and starting to look for “one that works” and you’ll see more and more of that in the form of an ever-increasing migration towards Apple.
The revolution is for real; the VPs at my company, the world’s largest CRO, have stressed initiatives to embrace iPhones and macs…a year ago I would have told you that would never happen. Our VPN has already undergone adaptations for iPhones to connect. It’s happening NOW…
@Jersey_Trader:
That’s exactly the trend that’s going to turn this thing around: all the kids coming along using iPods, etc. Then they get to college age and want (demand!) Macs to go off to school with. What will they also demand to use when they graduate into the work world? The same thing they’ve been using all along: another Mac!
Apple is doing their part nudging things along by going Intel, making Macs “play nice” with existing enterprise networks, using open standards, and differentiating with OS X and iLife.
I also see Apple peaking at around 20% market share, 25% tops. That’s all they need to totally dominate mindshare and create an Apple tsunami of momentum and profits.
Give it about four more years, only because M$ is so entrenched in the enterprise and has so much moolah, not because Apple isn’t making the right power moves.
Peace.
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Olmecmystic