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Macs reach 14% of U.S. Computer Market, Propelled by MacBook Air
by , 4:55 PM EDT, March 18th, 2008
The NPD Group said on Tuesday that Macs reached 14 percent of the U.S. computer market in February. That's up from 9 percent in February last year. Notebooks did particularly well, and sales were boosted by the MacBook Air which did not appear to cannibalize other products.
"The MacBook and MacBook Pro did pretty well and made a smooth transition to the Penryn," said Stephen Baker, an NPD analyst. "And Apple got a nice bump from the MacBook Air."
The MacBook Air accounted for about 20 percent of Apple's notebook sales last month. "It looks like the Air is giving Apple an incremental volume opportunity," Mr. Baker said. Apple's sales for February were three times the growth rate for other laptop sales in the U.S.
"Regardless of the month, when Apple comes out with new products, they get a big bump in sales," Baker said. "They're just much more focused when they have a new product to announce."
Mr. Baker, according to the Computerworld report, said that Apple's successes are due to many factors, but the most important is the retail buying experience. "The market sometimes discounts this, but Apple's stores are key to what they do," Mr. Baker added.
When Apple introduced the MacBook Air, some advanced users thought it was underpowered and not suitable for them while others raved about its design and light weight. That collective reaction was probably a key indicator that Apple had found a new niche in its product line that would add incremental sales instead of cannibalize them.
Observer Comments
Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:45 pm Subject: Once Again, the Haters are....
...WRONG!
Good Job Apple, go MacBook Air (redeeming the acronym MBA on a daily basis), can't wait to see what the next hardware announcement brings.
Now that you've seen that the MBA can carve out a new segment, how about an iMac-level machine with GPU slots next? I promise I'll keep recommending the iMacs to people as well, while finally having a machine that gamers can take seriously at a sub-1000 price point (low end model) could mean more sales. Bonus if the CPU is easy to change out and overclock.
"The market sometimes discounts this, but Apple's stores are key to what they do," Mr. Baker added."
And there you may have a lot of explanation as to why the global market share still lags much behind the US. Although there are stores coming to the bigger European cities, but mainly in the UK, we donʼt have one in the whole of Scandinavia yet, for example.
In the area where I live in Norway, with around 100 000 inhabitants living in a more or less urbanized environment, consisting of two smaller cities and lots of towns, there isnʼt one shop which have a dedicated Mac-department, for instance, so Macs are virtually invisible to the common man and woman. iPods are everywhere, of course, and one chain of shops, selling mainly electrodomestic appliances, have some Macs in some shops, but in between all the PCs.
And Norwegians are rich. There are many such areas spread around in Scandinavia and imagine how much the situation would have been improved if one would have actually seen Macs? But there are not even ads about them here.
I can understand that it isnʼt possible for Apple to expand faster outside the US, but maybe they should consider some co-operation of some sort? There are Mac-dealers around and some of them try to copy the design etc. of the Apple Stores, but they do not exist outside the largest cities - and those are few.
Well, just a few thoughts. I am sure we will see an improvement to this soon and I am convinced that the world is ready for a "surge" from Apple:)
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Why bother to build in a feature that the vast majority of people will never use?
Well, considering that nVidia continues to post high profits every quarter in an ever tighter component market, I'd say you're underestimating the demand for dedicated GPUs. Go to Kotaku.com or another gaming site and ask people why they don't use Macs, 9/10 will cite the lack of GPU upgradability, affordable models, and DIY options.
So I think you're wrong, those days are far from over, and again I think the MBA demonstrated that Apple has the ability to introduce a new segment and not have it hurt sales of existing models.
Will Apple do it? I agree the chances are low, but I think you're being overly dismissive, especially given the enhanced profile among gamers Apple has gotten with the game announcements that followed the iPhone SDK announcement. Now, or at least in the next 3-6 months, is the PERFECT time for them to do it if they're going to.
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