“Apple’s stores may be shrines to the tech giant’s minimalist aesthetic but they are also a key weapon in its battle with Microsoft, according to an analyst,” James Rogers reports for TheStreet.
“The stores, which are popping up around the globe, have already lured masses of Windows users onto the booming Mac platform, Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf says, and continue to play a pivotal role in the clash of the two tech heavyweights,” Rogers reports. “‘[The Apple Stores] have become a magnet in attracting Windows users to the Mac platform,’ explained Wolf, in a note released on Wednesday. Windows users purchased half of the 606,000 Macs sold in the stores during the March quarter, he added.”
Rogers reports, “Needham estimates that, since 2004, more than 18 million Windows users have switched to a Mac.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
Sorry, meant to say there were actual people in the store, other than store staff. The staff had their colored shirts on too!
My family and I switched at the end of 2005. We’re proud and happy owners of 2 Macbooks, a Powermac, 2 iPhones, 4 various iPod’s, 3 keyboards, Apple’s online services, and some AAPL shares. Soon will be adding 2 iPads. Oh and a board member of a local user’s group. Lastly, now visit Apple fan and rumor sites.
Cheers!
@Digits McGee,
Not only am I old enough to remember that their name was Gateway 2000, but I’m old enough to remember driving by their production facility every day when the whole company fit in one small steel building. Half my friends worked there at one time or another building, shipping, and supporting the “cow boxes”.
Here were are 20-some years later, and Apple is kicking ass, blowing away analyst’s predictions and poised to exceed Microsoft’s market cap. Whoda thunkit?
18m users switched? I’m not bummed because I’m not special anymore… No, I feel VINDICATED!!!
Who’d have thought that there was 18 million smart Windows users in the world?
Bada Bing !
Since 1986…
iMac 27″. 13″ MacBook Pro. MacBook Air (wife). iPhone 3GS. iPad 32G. AppleTV.
Since ’84
Currently we use 1 imac 20′, 4 iphones, 2 macbooks, 1 macbook pro, 1 mac mini, 1 Mac pro, 1ATV.
I have to keep reminding myself that there are a lot more “switchers” now (in the Mac user community) than long-time (pre-Intel) Mac users. And more are being added every day.
yeah, forget trying to be cool because you use a mac. Try this: using a mac is just good. It works. It’s not an image thing. Its a logic thing. OSX on a mac is better, simple.
………and that’s when the hackers began targeting the Mac OS.
So you see kids, that’s what led to all the world converting back to the Windows OS. With new CEO, Justin Long at the helm, Windows–or “Doppleganger” as we now know it–was able to re-gain it’s monopoly over the world’s installed computer base- making Apples 10-year, relative meteoric rise to prominence look like a blip on the radar screen in the history of computers.
Now you kids get to bed.
“Grandad, what’s an…i—-Pad?”
Now kids, we’ll have to save that one for tomorrow night’s history lesson. Now shut off those Zunes and get ome sleep.
Horray for the Apple Stores! We have one in our town and it is always very busy.
I’d always thought the store’s “minimalist aesthetic” was something that Apple dreamed-up. Then I visited shops selling designer goods in Florence and Rome, Italy. Same idea, only no T-shirts.
Someone wake up BTaylor he’s having another nightmare again.
Hate to break it to you but unless Microsoft does some seriously COOL stuff they are going to keep up bleeding out. They will hang onto the Corporate market but they will have to start supporting Mac’s better if they don’t want to start losing those types of customers as well. But that’s gonna take a LONG time.
I know, I’ve been a Microsoft Certified Engineer for nearly 15 years and long held off Mac’s. Until the Intel’s came out, now I own pretty much what others have said here, iMac, Macbook Pro, Atv, getting an iPad 3G next month, own multiple iPod’s which started the whole thing for me.
My Mac’s are the FIRST Pc’s I have ever purchased rather than built myself other than a Commodore 128 back in the late 80’s.
My friends can’t believe what a Machead I’ve become and I love it. I keep telling them and it seems strange that “You just won’t get it until you get one for yourself.”
LOL, still can’t believe it.
hey thanks ttringle, but I’m ok. l Iove 98.123456789% of anything Apple does. just feel a little compelled to play devils advocate in these threads sometimes.
You know, how do you make Microsoft stores super-successful? Sell Apple’s Macbook Pros, Macbooks, iMacs, iPods, iTouches, iPhones and iPads under franchise from Apple. This should be a foolproof and no-brainer business model for Microsoft to adopt.