T he iPod Halo Effect is a myth, according to Apple Death Knell Counter hall-of-famer Rob Enderle. The iPod Halo Effect is the theory that Appleis reach into the Windows market with its popular iPod digital media device will bring coverts to the Mac platform. This phenomenon has been credited with Appleis increasing Mac sales during the last two quarters, along with the presence of the new, low-cost Mac mini during the March quarter.
In an article from Forbes magazine about the release of Tiger on Friday, however, Mr. Enderle, in his role as consultant, said that the iPod Halo Effect was a myth because Apple could use anything else, for instance a celebrity, to drive foot traffic to its fleet of Apple Stores.
"From what Iim seeing, the iPod simply drives people into the stores, and the foot traffic helps move product," Mr. Enderle said to Fortune reporter Arik Hesseldahl. "The iPod benefits the entire Apple product line, but Apple could have done the same thing by having Paris Hilton, or some other celebrity, visit the Apple stores."
In other words, the iPod has driven foot traffic to Apple, which in turn led to increased Mac (and other Apple) sales, but Apple could have achieved the same by hiring model Paris Hilton and other celebrities to hang out at its retail locations. Therefore, according to Mr. Enderleis reasoning, the iPod Halo Effect is a myth.
Even a cursory logic filter on this argument shows it to be devoid of any reasonable foundation. If the iPod is driving foot traffic to Appleis retail stores, and if those people are buying more Macs, that is, by its very definition, the iPod Halo Effect.
To be fair, it is possible that Mr. Enderleis comments were taken out of context, and could have been in response to a question about whether or not the problems with Windows were driving the iPod Halo Effect. Be that as it may, however, the remains that the iPod Halo Effect is defined by most, if not all, of the Wall Street analysts we cover at TMO as the idea that Windows users exposed to the iPod will be attracted to other Apple products, specifically the Mac.
Last, we also wanted to note that in his weekly column at TechNewsWorld, Mr. Enderle had some positive comments about the Mac in a meandering piece about 64-bit computing. In that column, Mr. Enderle called Tiger the hands-down choice for most consumers for a desktop operating system.
You can find Mr. Enderleis comments about the iPod Halo Effect at Forbesis Web site.