“PC sales for the fourth quarter of 2011 proved disappointing, with shipments falling by 1.4 percent year over year, according to preliminary figures from Gartner,” Ted Samson reports for InfoWorld.
“Economic uncertainty and hard-drive shortages played roles in that dip but don’t fully explain away why HP’s PC sales were disproportionately disappointing for the quarter, whereas Apple’s were quite impressive,” Samson reports. “The answer may partially lie in the soaring interest in tablets and smartphones, along with general consumer confusion about Ultrabooks.”
Samson reports, “There’s also ‘”the halo effect,’ which has arguably helped boost Mac sales ever since the iPod caught on. The theory beyond the halo effect says, if customers fall in love with one of a company’s products they are more likely to purchase other products from the company. Following that logic, the iPod has helped boost Mac sales among consumers over the past few years. Combining the halo effect with the trend toward consumerization of IT means that consumers and professionals who are hungrily grabbing up iPhones and iPads are also gravitating toward Macs. Those also tend to be the folks who can more readily afford pricier Mac hardware, another factor boosting Apple PC sales the past holiday season.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple Mac, Windows PC killer – January 12, 2012
U.S. Windows PC shipments drop 6% in holiday quarter as Apple Macs surge 21% – January 11, 2012
J.P. Morgan: Apple’s MacBook Air to dominate ultrabook market – December 12, 2011
Why Apple will be the world’s #1 personal computer maker in 2012 – December 5, 2011
Apple on track to overtake HP, become leading global PC vendor – November 21, 2011
Gartner: Apple Mac share up 20% in Europe YOY as PC shipments plunge 11.4% – November 14, 2011
Surging iPad shipments propel Apple to #1 in worldwide mobile computer market share – February 16, 2011
Canalys unafraid to count iPad, puts Apple third in worldwide PC market share – January 26, 2011
DisplaySearch not afraid to count iPad: Apple #1 mobile PC maker in North America, #3 in world – December 7, 2010
… have helped sell a number of PC types on going Mac, instead, it had no such effect on me. I was ready to buy an iPad AND an MBA, then my wife nixed the latter. Why? Because the iPad took up enough of the load from the current MB that we didn’t NEED to replace it. Still WANT to, though. 😉
… take that 1.4% drop in PC sales and plug it into iPad sales and Mac halo-sales and you discover pretty close to a 20-something percent increase in sales!
Except … this really isn’t a zero-sum game.
And the misinformation about price continues: “Those also tend to be the folks who can more readily afford pricier Mac hardware, another factor boosting Apple PC sales the past holiday season.”
Really? Show me a Macbook/iMac in the sub-$700 range. You may argue quality and value if you like, but Apple does not compete at the low end at all. Many people simply cannot afford getting into Macs at $1000. They knowingly suffer with cheap Dell and Acer PCs, just as long as they get the job done.
… correct – as far as you take it. But, if you need to buy two $700 computers to make up for the single $1,400 iMac you “can’t afford”, maybe that’s not such a good bargain. And I mean “sequentially”, not at the same time. Really, what do you do when your PC gets befuddled with a year’s worth of cruft?
it comes down to “Total cost of ownership” Apple computers are simply better value for money.
TCO is big. So is the iPad.
I know a lot of PC users who now Surf the Net, store and read books, take photos, listen to music, play game apps and send e-mails on an iPad and never touch their flea bitten PCs any more let alone buy a new PC.
P.S. An iPad is less than $700.
Mac Mini (sorry for post in wrong place)
I think the iPod and iPhone have more of a halo effect that effects laptop and desktop sales than the iPad. I think the iPad has some halo effect, but I think it hurts more than it helps. Many people are turning to it over all forms of laptops and desktops.
…and I have been seeing WAYYY more people who are buying new digital cameras – whether first timers or upgrading – who are ALSO buying a Mac. It’s a huge percentage, and I think much of this trend is driven by word of mouth and personal Mac evangelism as folks see more friends and family using Apple products. We’ve also been seeing large numbers of people with iPads and the Digital Camera Connection Kit.
Market. Resellers like Mac Authority in Nashville/Louisville offer excellent values on refurbished used Macs for price conscious buyers and do quite well at it. There’s your $700 price point, a three-year-old Macbook which is great for most people and will handily run Lion.
Mac Mini.