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.

It's really the JLo effect. Since JLo dumped Ben Affleck, Apple marketshare has rebounded nicely.

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Guest 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.

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gslusher 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.

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.

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daemon 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.