“When the Macintosh was launched in 1984… ‘PCs’ [were] outselling the Mac by a factor of nearly 6 [2 million/yr. vs. 372,000/yr.],” Horace Dediu reports for Asymco.
“The ratio reached 56 in 2004 when 182.5 million PCs were sold vs. 3.25 million Macs,” Dediu reports.
“During the second half of the 90s it was already clear that Windows won the PC platform war,” Dediu reports. “Windows had an advantage that seemed unsurmountable.”
MacDailyNews Take: You can’t win a war when the other side never surrenders and continues to fight.
When we wrote the following 7 1/2 years ago, a lot of people laughed:
As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005
Dediu reports, “Then, in 2004, something happened… Although PC volumes continued to grow, they did so more slowly and the Mac grew faster… The ratio of Windows to Mac units shipped fell to below 20, a level that was last reached before Windows 95 launched… This was an amazing turnaround for the Mac. But the story does not end there.”
“If we consider all the devices Apple sells, the whittling becomes even more significant and the multiple drops to below 2,” Dediu reports. “Considering the near future, it’s safe to expect a ‘parity’ of iOS+OS X vs. Windows within one or two years… The consequences are dire for Microsoft. Windows will have to compete not only for users, but for developer talent, investment by enterprises and the implicit goodwill it has had for more than a decade. It will, most importantly, have a psychological effect. Realizing that Windows is not a hegemony will unleash market forces that nobody can predict.”
You have to see the excellent graphs in the full article – highly recommended – here.