Apple's Computers Taking Market Share From PCs
Apple's Computers Taking Market Share From PCs
by , 4:40 PM EDT, June 22nd, 2007
The NPD Group reported that Apple computers, both notebooks and desktops, continued to take market share away from PCs in the consumer market.
The numbers, reported by Information Week, showed that in May, Apple's sales through both retail outlets and online rose to 13 percent compared to April's 11.6 percent. Even more dramatic was the the notebooks sales which rose to 14.3 percent compared to 12.5 percent the month before.
"It's part of a pattern," Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis for NPD, told Information Week. "They certainly have been gaining share over the last year to year and a half." Driving all this was Apple's notebook upgrade to faster Core 2 Duo processors, more standard memory and larger hard disks."The consumer market in general is embracing notebooks, and Apple is strong in notebooks," Mr. Baker said.
In the desktop market, neither Apple nor the PC vendors showed much growth. However, Apple still retained a small growth margin over the PCs.
In general, the Apple move to Intel processors appears to be seeding Apple growth. Mr. Baker thinks there may also be a halo effect with the iPod, but no one has been able to quantify that effect.
Observer Comments
To the folks who were asking "What halo effect?": Here it comes.
Most people who decide their next computer will be a Mac don't go out the next day and buy one. It's too big an expense for an impulse purchase. Instead, they wait until it's time to replace their current PC.
It appears that those people who decided on a Mac two or three years ago are now starting to replace their old PCs. I bet a significant chunk of them are incoming college freshmen who set their hearts on a Mac while they were still in high school.
QuoteGuest wrote:
I bet a significant chunk of them are incoming college freshmen who set their hearts on a Mac while they were still in high school.
Ah, a guest who 1) writes intelligibly and 2) makes sense--how rare.
The promotion Apple is running (again) to include a free iPod Nano with a educational Mac purchase may help.
Apple is in this for the long haul.
Quotegslusher wrote:
Ah, a guest who 1) writes intelligibly and 2) makes sense--how rare.
The promotion Apple is running (again) to include a free iPod Nano with a educational Mac purchase may help.
Apple is in this for the long haul.
I think what's amazing is that Apple has pulled off these growths during a period in which there is a traditional market shrink in sales. Hopefully Apple will continue to set the pace for HP, Dell, and Lenovo through Christmas 2007.
Another thing that is amazing is that Vista has done nothing to stop Apples marketshare gain. The common thinking used to be that as long as Windows is "good enough", it will keep its dominant marketshare. Or, as long as Windows appears to offer the same features as the mac (even while using them would be a lousy experience), their dominance will be untouched.
I honestly believed that Vistas flashy GUI would be enough to convince most people that "macs and pc's do the same, and it's too much of a hassle to switch".
There really is a stronger current moving here. I suppose people are really fed up with Windows after years of trouble. Their expectation of a Microsoft product has hit a low point while the mac has become trendy once again. And since most people already have an Apple product that they enjoy, the mental step to switch computer system as well is much smaller than it used to be.
Now the interesting question is: How high can Apples marketshare go?
I doubt Apple's market share will ever go above 20% again, as for the adoption of OS X, it will stagnate as long as it is an Apple only operating system, for it to gain wide support it needs to be able to run on any computer made.
When the PC enthusist is able to install OS X on their custom PC, then OS X will become a true threat to Windows, until then, Windows is King, Linux is Princess, and OS X is the court Jester.
And, that is one thing that Apple Inc. will never do again. Part of the reason the OSX system is so beautiful and runs so well is because it is integrated into every aspect of the hardware. Before SJ came back Apple tried a similar thing with OS7 and 8, and well, we all know what a crapshoot that was.
Move OSX to any machine = take away some of the beauty that is OSX
I am pretty sure SJ will stick to his guns and never do that. 20% is fine anyway. Apple makes a really good niche market IMO.
Quotedaemon wrote:
I doubt Apple's market share will ever go above 20% again, as for the adoption of OS X, it will stagnate as long as it is an Apple only operating system, for it to gain wide support it needs to be able to run on any computer made.
When the PC enthusist is able to install OS X on their custom PC, then OS X will become a true threat to Windows, until then, Windows is King, Linux is Princess, and OS X is the court Jester.
again? mac market share never was above 20%, it peaked 14 years ago at 13%.
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