Apple Grabs 91% Share of PCs Costing $1,000 or More
July 24th, 2009 at 4:39 PM - News by Bryan Chaffin
In June, Apple grabbed some 91% of all PCs sold that cost US$1,000 or more, according to data from NPD (as reported by BetaNews). That's an increase from 88% in May, and 66% during the first quarter of 2008, demonstrating a steady increase in performance in this, the most profitable sector of the computer business.
It also contrasts starkly to the broader market, where Apple holds some 8.7% market share in the most recent data from Gartner and NPD. While that percent is also on the rise, it shows the stark contrast of Apple's business versus the rest of the PC industry, and it also shows how fast and how much the over-$1,000 market for PCs has shrunk.
With netbooks and rush-to-the-bottom cheap laptop and desktop machines filling out the Windows-world and shrinking average selling prices (ASPs), the breakdown of those ASPs further demonstrates the way the PC market is separating into Apple and everyone else.
NPD's data shows the ASP for desktop PCs was $690 in June, and $703 for laptops -- laptops represent the lion's share of PC sales for Apple and the rest of the industry at this point in time. If you separate Macs and PCs, the Windows-based ASP shrinks to $515, while Apple's Mac ASP is...$1,400.
Desktop Windows PC ASP was $489, while Apple's desktop Mac ASP was $1,398. Separating out notebooks, the proud world of Windows saw an ASP of $520 while Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro ASP was $1,400.
On Wednesday, Barclay's Capital analyst Ben Reitzes told clients that Apple's performance was a demonstration that the company's business model was working, though other analysts have long criticized the company for not following in the footsteps of the competition pursuing the low end of the market.
Oh, and as a reminder, Apple posted a record quarter for June in terms of Mac unit sales, total revenue, and total profit. Microsoft posted a 17% decline in revenue and a 29% decline in profits.
Accordingly, we expect to see a spate of "Apple is doomed" articles from sources near and far.
6 Observer Comments
Looks like MS pulled off another successful project with their ad campaign pointing out all their PC builders using Vista are cheaper than Macs. This might be almost as successful as selling the XBox at a loss.
When I read the headline, I started looking for the catch (or the joke), but it was not to be found. This is huge! If it is true that Apple so dominates “the most profitable sector of the computer business,” then Acer, Dell, and others will be going to the wall, while Apple will be going to the bank.
Is Microsoft beleaguered yet?
This analysis is not considering enough data, not enough questions asked. How big (long tail) is the PC market in dollars and sales of units? What are the breakdowns at various levels of the $300 to $3000 personal computer? What is the profitability at each of these levels? That is, if you sell enough at a lower price, the higher margin of more costly machines might be a very small slice.
The higher margin of costly machines isn’t a small slice. Apple’s margin is about a third. PC makers average about 10%. Given the average selling prices above, for selling 91 computers the industry sans Apple makes a profit of about $4550. For selling 9 computers, Apple makes a profit of $4275.
Don’t you have the numbers the wrong way around? Apple grabbed 91% and PCs 9%
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