Apple: Mac computers have outpaced the overall PC market; Is a price drop imminent?
By Opal Tribble
The past quarters have been very good for Apple. A lot of focus has been directed at the iPhone 3G, but we cannot overlook the popularity of Apple’ Mac computers.
Apple’s Mac sales have outpacing the entire PC market by a large margin, according to INVESTORS.com. During the June quarter Mac sales climbed to 41% over the year. The industry rate was 15.3%.
A big part of Apple sales comes from education. Apple does an excellent job of marketing its computers in the education market. Apple offers very nice incentives for potential Mac buyers. Mac users can save additional money by taking advantage of the Apple education discount. Apple also offers fabulous back-to-school incentives, and free workshops geared at new Mac users.
During the first quarter of this year, Apple regained its number one position of notebook sales to people within education. Apple had, 36.5% and Dell slipped into the number two slot with 27.1%. The education market includes K-12, colleges, universities, and trade schools.
In 1999 Apple had the number one spot for computer sales to those in the education market. However, Dell came along knocked them out of the top spot.
Mac sales are a major part of Apple’s success. During the third quarter which ended on June 28, Mac products and services accounted for 61% of Apple’s total revenue. IDC analyst Richard Shim told INVESTORS.com, “From an overall market perspective, there are a ton of Windows (PC) vendors that are quaking in their boots over if Apple decides to lower its prices,”
With the increasing popularity of Apple’s Mac computers, some analysts are speculating that we might see a price drop in the Mac lineup. Student Monitor is a market research firm that tracks spending by college students. One of its managing partners, Eric Weil, said, “What we’ve seen over the last couple of years is a significant increase in the number of students who own an Apple laptop or Apple desktop or plan to buy one.”
Will we see cheaper Mac’s? It’s a possibility that Apple company executives seemed to allude to this in its last earning call. Steve Jobs goal has always been to revolutionize, and Apple has accomplished that with the Mac computer line, we’ve also seen this innovation with the extremely popular iPhone, iPod, and iTunes are. I eventually do think we’ll see a drop in price. I believe if we do see a new and cheaper Mac computer enter the lineup it will be presented in the same way as we’ve seen other Apple products, it will be done in a way that no other company has achieved before.
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August 11th, 2008
Not too clear on revolutionary…but possibly evolutionary. If Apple just adds a mid model in between the Mini and the next iMac they would see an immediate jump in sales, and a lowering in margins.
That would be pretty anti-Jobs and would put a strain on tech support. The only vendor to have a bigger laptop sales increase percentage than Apple in the first quarter was Asus with a 67% percent increase. The EEE type mini-laptops market is going to be huge, it would not take many sales from the Macbook line.
Be nice to see a Mac in that form factor.
August 13th, 2008
Ken,
Evolutionary would be a better word, thanks.
I agree with you I believe Apple would see a huge jump in sales if it narrowed that gap. Sure there is the Mac mini but I don’t think that appealed to as many people. Overall I think many who would be interested in purchasing a Mac are turned off by the price of them and you have some that are afraid of making the transition.
I’m sure Apple has to have discussed making them Macs more affordable I’m just wondering if when they will act. I don’t see Apple acting on that any time soon.
You’re correct Asus had a larger increase than Apple. I remember writing about that a few months ago. The EEE PC received a lot of attention because of it’s price. The size is also compact. I really like that. It’s something I would use if I wa son the go. I had a chance to test one out a few months ago. I do like the slogan “Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play.”
Although I’m mainly a Mac user I still use Windows, and later this year I’ll purchase another Windows computer so I can run Linux on it.