“When you go get a new computer these days you don’t buy a personal computer, you get a Mac — and with its move to cut prices Apple’s is tightening its grip on the ailing PC market,” Jonny Evans writes for TheStreet. “The cheapest MacBook Air yet warns of a huge problem for other PC makers — and there’s almost nothing they can do about it. Add iPad sales, and Apple is already the world’s biggest PC maker. IDC and Gartner may resist making that calculation, but Office runs on iPads now and their analytical blind spot doesn’t change a thing.”
“Apple says it sold 4.1 million Macs in its last quarter, up 5 percent. Macs have gained share for 31 of the last 32 quarters – that’s in stark contrast to the 1.7 percent decline across the wider PC market. Sure, Apple’s 4.1 million remains a minority, but it doesn’t sell servers and doesn’t compete in budget PC sales — or didn’t… It does now.,” Evans writes. “Cutting MacBook Air prices isn’t all the company is planning — there’s talk it plans reducing iMac costs this year. MacBook Air and iMac are two of the company’s most popular consumer-focused lines.”
MacDailyNews Note: That rogue quarter where Apple Mac failed to gain share was due to a mistake, admitted to by CEO Tim Cook, where Apple failed to have anywhere near enough (or any) iMac avaialble for Christmas 2012. Otherwise, it would have been 32 for 32.
“Consumers on a budget check prices, and they’re beginning to get wise to the hidden costs of PC ownership: Software upgrades, application prices and malware protection are extra costs when they look at the PC, but when they look at a Mac they know they also get free system upgrades, productivity apps and little or no malware problems,” Evans writes. “These price cuts mean Apple’s slice of the market is going to grow at the expense of an even wider segment of the PC market.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Die, Windoze, die!
Related articles:
Steve Jobs’ revenge: Latest PC market forecast projects historic 10% downturn – December 3, 2013
Apple kicks Wintel in the teeth; Windows PC market share plummets to all-time low – August 1, 2012
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
Ding, dong, the witch is dead!
Apple dropped a house on Microsoft. Next, they’re gonna splash water on Samsung. Oh, what a world!
The past tense of Win doze is Win died
Actually Apple makes windoze an app on your MacBook Air, if that’s what you need. I do and have been using Parallels on a mid-2013 MacBook Air with the 512 GB drive. Meets my needs for windows activity and I’m never without a Mac.
Been waiting 20+ (30?) years for the pendulum to swing.
M$ R.I.P.
I remember being very distraught over the Mac in 1998. Jobs had just been back a year, and nobody new what they could do to save their hide. I was, and still am, a die hard Mac guy. I did not want to lose the computing experience I’ve come to know and respect with the Mac.
So it was amazing when Apple came out with a funny colored all-in-one CRT based computer called the iMac. They sold like crazy, Apple was saved, and Jobs was vindicated. Add to the mix a nice looking laptop, (except for the toilet seat MacBook), and Apple really took off.
And to think, four years earlier, people were lined up in long lines around city blocks to buy Windows 95. Microsoft said Apple would be dead in two years. At the time I believed it.
WINBLOWS
“Add iPad sales, and Apple is already the world’s biggest PC maker. IDC and Gartner may resist making that calculation”
it always amusing to see how the analyst firms message the data to fit their needs. These firms sell reports to manufacturers for them to put together business plans, to sell shares, to get bank loans etc. It seems that they NEED to keep PCs alive (for all their PC related clients) and spread the Android domination myth .
For Android they pull stats out of their heads (since most manufacturers don’t release sales numbers) and count everything including phones with no wifi, can’t run apps as ‘smartphones’ (all android phones even flip phone replacements are ‘smartphones’ to some analysts) and even Android digital photo frames are ‘tablets’.
For PCs, for years they counted WINDOWS tablets as PCs but when the iPad was launched they didn’t count the iPad. According to them Windows tablets have a FULL COMPUTING OS while iPad iOS does not. Yet they count PCs used as things like point of sale registers, attached to weighing machines, as part of devices like medical scanners as ‘full PCs’. This is to please their many PC OEM clients (how is PC manufacturer going to use an IDC , NPD report to get a bank loan if the data shows PCS SINKING EVEN WORST than reported? )
I remember a video of a NPD rep explaining to a reporter why they counted Windows Tablets as PCs but not the iPad. When asked whether they counted the HP Windows Slate tablet, they said ‘Yes’. then the reporter asked whether they would count HP using Web OS (which they had just bought from Palm) on a tablet instead of windows, the NPD rep was stunned and was gasping like a fish unable to answer ….
some typos like ‘message’ should be massage etc.
sorry.
no edit feature
In fairness the categorization of computing devices is rather complex and has different objectives depending on perspective audience for the data.
Say you’re a developer… Platform share is important based on what you’re actually able to develop for. So an iPad is different from a Mac, but a Surface Pro is not different from a PC. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple because if you develop for a Mac and an iPad you could possibly quickly port over much of the work.
As you pointed out, even counting PCs that fit the classic definition of box, keyboard, mouse, hard drive/SSD, monitor, etc… isn’t entirely accurate for the developer market since some of those PCs have no chance of ever having your software installed on it since it’s a POS or medical device.
That’s why if you subscribe to these reporting services, they often have the numbers broken down into demographics and can provide better context so developers, for example, can look at Mac’s market share and put it in the context of how much more likely per unit they are to buy software and how much they’re willing to spend.
A similar situation is found with accessory vendors, consulting services and other industry decision makers looking at these numbers.
Overall, if you’re looking at greatest composite footprint, there’s value in that beyond just the fanboy perspective. Web developers have to pay close attention to these numbers, but the more immediate representation comes from their own logs or from web usage share numbers which do break down in all sorts of detailed demographics.
Finally, there’s the overall weight of the backing of the platform, which can be seen in the financial reports of the companies themselves involved in each platform. Of course this is where Apple shines the most. Anyone hoping to invest in a platform, like iPads as kiosks or widespread employee/student distribution, can easily see how successful a platform is by judging how well the companies behind it are doing with the platform. Apple is obviously very strong both as a company and in terms of return on the iPad. Microsoft is a strong company, but weak in terms of return (loss) on the Surface.
TL;DR: These reports are all each individual variables, none of which paint a whole picture, but provide value as-is for different audiences depending on the perspective one is trying to obtain data.
..and the band played on.
They day the corporate world decides to switch to Mac is they day MS will dwindle and die.
It’s not happening now and it’s not happening anytime soon. I know because I got a new PC with Windows 8.1. I’m not an exception. This is why MS is always making billions in profits and can afford to BLOW BILLIONS on wasted stupid ideas and products without going bankrupt. They can afford to wear down the competition until they can’t afford to keep up when MS catches on and builds a good enough or better mousetrap. It can take years and several Billions of Dollars wasted for MS? but they can afford it. The automatic cash register is constantly ringing in new money.
Is your Windows 8.1 machine your primary computer?
No. My first Mac is 512K Fat Mac and has been my primary for home and sometimes use for business. Only if the client/work approves virtualization use for Windows in the past. For home it’s always a Mac since I switched back in 85 or 86, I’m getting old can’t remember exactly when. lol But for this work I have to use Windows PC/8.1 no virtualization per CIO/IT doofuses.
My sentence is messed up. lol I meant to say and My primary at home as has always been a Mac. I even have a TAM in perfect condition stored away in its original packaging and box.
Damn. I was so impressed that your primary now was a 512k fatty. MDN’s home page would fill up the entire cache….
I’d love that to happen, but I don’t see how. One of the reasons that large enterprises like PCs is that they can force the various assemblers to compete for their big-volume business. If you don’t like Dell’s prices, you can threaten to go to Lenovo.
These types of businesses would be scared to put Macs on every desk, paranoid that Apple, the single manufacturer of the machines their business depends on, could hold them hostage for higher prices.
I’m not saying this is a legitimate fear. I’m just saying that’s how they think.
——RM
You can fool consumers who aren’t paying attention 1, 2 or even 3 times, but after awhile, they smart up.
I can’t believe PC users have put up with the junk thrown at them every day for this long ! Advertisements popping up in apps, half ware ,security scams and upgrades , constant fear to the point no pc user actually uses outlook preferring google to peruse their sensitive mail fore keywords and targeting adds to them. its like using the bathroom at the Port of Authority bus station in new york . Yes its cheap but YEEECH !
Another one of the IT doofuses at work completely went full retard today. He was running around the office stark naked and screaming something about Steven Sinofsky and the Metro gui. Fortunately he was tackled by security and quickly tasered into submission. Everybody thought they were going to die for a moment.
MacBook Air and iMac are two of the company’s most popular consumer-focused lines.
That may be true but I LOVE my Mac Mini (Server Edition). Hoping for a refresh to this “forgotten” line soon.
Ten or twelve years ago, I remember being in the audience at an animation convention where people were performing skits on stage. I don’t remember what the skit was, only that the punchline was “get a Mac”. The crowd laughed, except for this insecure Windows putz seated directly behind me. “2% market share really doesn’t do it for me,” he said to everyone around him, apparently thinking that to be a clever comeback to defend his OS of choice.
I didn’t say anything, because unlike him, I knew how to behave when you’re watching a show, but I wanted to ask this idiot if that’s all that really mattered to him, that more people used Windows. Who gave a sh*t whether it actually worked, right?
Well, hopefully by now this guy has a Mac. (Or is miserable. Or dead.) After all, the Mac is now both better and popular, so all the insecure market share followers can happily buy one without worrying that they’re going to be stigmatized or something.
——RM
Wind ooze stinks like a fart. Who’s going to mind if it dissipates and disappears into the thin Air.
Apple will kill the PC manufacturers first before M$. The former has low margins and are fighting for the scraps of profit in the business that Apple don’t already take.
M$ still have legacy installations and service contracts to pump up their margins.
3 Windows stories for today.
1. I got a new 27″ iMac in my office this week. Since our firm needs to run some Windows software, I had to load Parallels and Windows 7 on it. After loading Windows 7 I had to load 165 Windows updates. 165 freakin’ updates. How is that even possible?
2. A new lawyer started in our firm on Monday. He has only ever used Windows. When he sat at his desk in front of his new Mac he started looking for the box. He couldn’t believe the computer was all enclosed in the monitor. BTW, after two days he really likes that Mac. Another Switcher.
3. Another lawyer in our firm comes into my office and wants to buy Dragon dictation so he can dictate on the computer like a PC. I said, NO. Dictation is built into Mavericks and then showed him how to use it. He is now like a pig in mud.
Bottom line, with a Mac you don’t need to buy a lot of extra crap like you do with a PC. Second bottom line, after using a Mac people never, ever go back to the dark side.
Again im a big fan of apple and and investor in aapl!
I just migrated to an imac after 30 years + on pc ( dos and windows)
Have been iphone ipad apple Tv owner since first day !
I must admit Maveriks is super safe and has some cool interface features.
But there are a lot of things about windows that are ( imho ) more efficient and user friendly.
Without getting into too many detail.. I feel windows has a much better window system than maveriks.
The universal top menu on osx is a disaster of ergonomics and efficiency .
How files and folders and icons resize automatically as windows are resized is not good…..Information gets cutoff rather than get resized.
Scaling and arranging windows in osx not as good compared to windows !
Scanning whats open is much easer on windows.
Mac force keyboard use a lot.. Windows allows the user to choose if mouse is what they prefer .
On mac one is forced to used the keyboard very often.. No mouse equivalents !
I find windows interface not as pretty…. But simpler and less cluttered !
There are a lot if niche software that are simply not available for osx at this point !
There are a lot of little unexplainable inefficiencies in osx.
But at the end it is safe and need way less maintenance!
Point im making is .. Windows has huge safety issues and maintenance issues. No doubt!
But windows is not all crap as some make it to be .
In a lot of ways windows is more efficient !
Now go ahead and shoot me.. As many do in apples own forums when i bring up an issue. People attack me like i have insulted their God. Very few offer insight and reasonable debate about apples inefficiencies !
My answer more often than not is: Nothing is perfect. I want apple to be as close to perfect as possible.
Staying silent or turning a blind eye and not criticizing obvious idiosyncrasies does not do any good to apple or its users.
Silence does not get heard and improves nothing.
Insulting new comers to apple osx achieves nothing good! .. Makes apple users look like fanatics and discourages migrants.
IMHO
Ps. If u have followed my posts .. U know im a major apple fan !
Apple’s Key Commands are extensive to say the least.
– Windows Keys on Mac: support.apple.com—PH10574
– OSX Function Keys: support.apple.com—HT1343
Will check for sure
Thanx
Moc OS X keyboard shortcuts:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343
What BoC has above
Hog wash! We need go reset SMC and PRAM just as often as a well tuned PC needs a reboot. Both OS have flaws and OSX is still not relevant enough to warrant the effort to target it as a repository for malware and viruses. The idiots who want to make peoples lives miserable target Windows as the disturbance can affect north of 1.4 billion users versus 100 million or so OSX users.
Hogwash back at you. I maintain dozens of Macs. I think I have reset a PRAM and a SMC perhaps only twice in the last ten years. . . Among all of those computers. Two Times.
To pick just one point
“The universal top menu on osx is a disaster of ergonomics and efficiency”
Nope. It’s a user interface masterpiece, especially now that Mavericks has improved the menubar on multiple monitors.
Fitt’s Law. Look it up. Also, see “Togg on interface” to see why it’s a better design.
The “menubar in the window” design on Windows is one of the worst UI mistakes I know of.
Charls i will study more!
But at this moment given my 3 months on a mac.. I find that top menu a disaster. Constant double checking if the menu is representing the right window.
Constant back and forth between open windows and top of the screen to get access to some functions.
On a 27 inch plus monitor and repetitive tasks it is mind boggelingly inefficient and confusing ! Eyes and mouse are constantly moving back and forth from top of screen to open windows. Unnecessary and extra movement is inefficient and tiering!
But i will study what u suggested and see if i can find any light in there !
Don’t worry! Keep at it!
I remember my first 3 months with a Mac. I understand EXACTLY where you are with the menu bar.
Don’t fret. Soon you will understand and will love it. Trust me. I was there.
Be comforted that once you get used to it, you will think Windows is ugly.
Cheers!
Thanks James.
Hope i get there sooner than later
One more thing…just try this out:
I run EVERY app in full screen mode. Now that Finder has tabs, that is always full screen too (ok, mostly..not always)
Three finger swipe to change windows(not alt-tab) gets me where I want to be.
Give it a try.
Charls i read about fitts law as u suggested.
That is exactly what The universal top menu in osx fails to accomplish.
Yes if one has only one window sized at full screen open the whole discussion is irrelevant ….
But single window sized smaller than whole screen or with multiple windows open.. The top menu forces way more movement of the eye, mouse than needed ..And the mind too by forcing one to double check and make sure the menu represents the right window.
Repeatedly !
That is far far from efficient ergonomics and it is in such a core aspect of an interface .
Have you tried increasing the mouse speed? That will get the mouse cursor to where you want more easily. Moreover, the Mac mouse tracking algorithm is smart in that a speedy mouse move will result in amplified cursor travel distance.
Thank you … Yes im aware of that.. Windows has the same mouse functionality !
Still the problem remains !
If only you were a fan of English too…
What is that supposed to mean?
By the way.
Thank you for offering yourself as proof for one of the points i made in my post above !
Yojimbo,
Your comments are thoughtful and appropriate. Welcome to the world of iMac and Mac OS X – you will have many pleasant discoveries as you delve deeper into the world of Mac. I have been working with Mac since mid 1983 (on prototype Mac development units).
Mac OS X has many ways of accomplishing each task, so try whatever seems to be “right” to you, and it may work.If not, there are other variations to try. You mention the need to depend on the keyboard – it is amazing what you can do just with the mouse or trackpad. Not sure what mouse you are using – all Apple mice these days support multiple buttons (even though they are invisibly defined areas on the mouse). Make sure you have configured the mouse in System Preferences to support the multiple buttons. I really like Logitech mice (they are great mice, and the company really supported Doug Englebart, who invented the mouse in his landmark DARPA paper in 1962)
Apple does not provide detailed user manuals in the box with any of their products. There are great video tutorials and extensive pdf based manuals in the Support area of Apple’s website.
Hope you enjoy your new iMac.
Fred. Many thanks .
I have the magic mouse configured as two button and touch.
I also have a track pad.
And a Logitech two button with a scroll wheel.
They all have their advantages and short comings.
Maybe as time goes by i will learn to be more efficient . For now i use the keyboard way more than i did on windows .
If you want to get around quickly on a Mac with a lot of apps running, use the Control-tab keyboard function.
Also command space to invoke Spotlight, type the app’s name and hit return, you’re in.
Where is this happening? All these reports that more often than not contradict one another and often times which are leaning towards the tech that funds them. I live in a large Canadian city and earn my living in tech and nowhere do I see Macs. Lots of iPhones and iPads but not Macs. I visit several large retails outlets and PC rules the day. Go to Costco and all PC etc… I own 2 Macs and 1 PC and frankly both platforms are solid with PC being more adaptable to varying day to day computing requirements. Listen, I get that this is a Pro Apple website but sometimes the propaganda is too much to stomach.
I’m a Mac guy. Always have been and (probably) always will be. I own an iMac, an iPad mini, and an iPod nano. Yet I agree with Jubei when he said, “They day the corporate world decides to switch to Mac is they day MS will dwindle and die. It’s not happening now and it’s not happening anytime soon. I know because I got a new PC with Windows 8.1. …” I work in a university library and I am STILL using a Windows XP machine. I was told that I will be getting a new computer soon that runs with Windows 7. WINDOWS 7?!?!?!?! Not only that, the person who oversees my department and is the boss of the department head DESPISES Apple. I guess I won’t ever have a Mac as my machine at work! 🙁
Exactly what I mean! It’s FREAKING down right amazingly ANAL with these CIO/IT people. I remember a few years back when we spent several weeks presenting data after data, study after study on the benefits and ease of integration with Macs and benefits for users. In the end, NO, we just can’t support dual platforms. It’s economically not feasible, to costly and (here we go and some of you have experienced this) Mac computers are just too chatty on Networks and causes too much chatter and collisions. WTF! I gave up.
With you.
The fix was in, the consultancy was just window dressing/HR compliance in 3 med. facilities I worked with. It was a filthy waste of money and I only found one, in S. FL that processed my group’s reports properly, and adopted a new TAAD plan accordingly. To this day, I still go there to check up on baby Macs, just like family. The Windows relatives—to hell with them.
This might just put a dent in the M$ Surface sales potential too.
11″ MBA rather than a Surface? Yup, definitely.
I think it’s time for Apple to add a high-end MBA with ‘retina’ display. Makes sense, they would certainly sell but also make the cheaper units look like a bargain to the potential PC convert.
They will do it as soon as they can get a battery that is as thin as it needs to be to fit in an MBA and render equivalent power up times to the existing MBA.
The Volkswagen Beetle remained essentially unchanged from 1939—2003, sixty-four years, and it was never a paragon of mechanical or design virtues. One of the benefits to VW was simplicity of assembly and repair. Of benefit to the consumer was the enhanced resale value – the VW design was ageless.
Sure, they made improvements over the years, but nothing radical. The same is true of the MacBook Air, though the pricing has been radically reduced since its introduction – now less than half what the original configuration cost with at least twice the value – the design is perfect for what it is, a real paragon of design, both physically and functionally.
It ain’t broke – what’s to fix?
dmz