Apple gains 10.6% US market share, hard work or pure luck?
Yes, 10.6% U.S. laptop market share doesn’t sound that impressive, but when you think of the hurdles Apple has had to jump to get to this milestone, you’ll realize it wasn’t a small feat. Has Apple’s success been the product of skill and key management, or was it just a heavy dose of good luck?
The topic brings heated debate as it should, with Microsoft fans touting Apple’s constant luck against Apple fan’s view that Apple has simply done things right and left its competitors in the dust. If you ask me, I think it comes down to a little of both- the stellar management of Steve Jobs, combined with being in the right place at the right time. Speaking on the subject, Dan Reisinger at CNet stated: "Years ago, no one thought that Apple would survive another year, let alone capture 10 percent of any market. But today, it’s sitting atop the technology industry, and companies in every major market are looking up."
A key turning point for Apple was the return of Jobs in the ’90s when he altered the companies focus to hardware, and instead used software as the key driving factor behind selling that hardware. Simply put, Jobs wasn’t satisfied with the devices and hardware that were available, and thought consumers wanted and deserved more. Luckily, most competitors took little notice of Apple’s efforts back then when the company was inconsequential. By introducing sleek devices and moving away from simply being a "computer company," Jobs hit the nail on the head- if people liked other Apple products like the iPod, wouldn’t they want to own a Mac?
On the same token, Apple was very lucky that management was so poorly executed from the likes of Microsoft, Dell, HP and others during the same time Apple was making headway. I think Reisinger said it best: "In Microsoft, I see a company that’s deathly afraid of Google and even more scared of being cornered out of the online space. In its desire to capture more search market share and gain a foothold in the advertising market, it forgot about Windows. It also forgot about Apple."
Either way, it’s hard to deny Apple’s success, and it’s good to see that other companies are starting to take notice. Hopefully, the future for Apple will only get brighter.
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September 19th, 2008
I hope Apple goes bust.
September 20th, 2008
Kudos to Steve Jobs and Apple for the job they have done in turning Apple around.
Some Apple users are annoying as hell and should be deprogrammed, but raising the bar and competition is good for all of us.
Microsoft is run by bean counters and software wonks, they try to sell on feature and function .Is there anything more pathetic then Mojave? It’s come to showing people watching a video of other people using an OS? Microsoft is actually proud of it.
Apple is based on benefits. I use Linux myself, but you can’t ignore the genius of Jobs. He’s an annoying, self absorbed egotist, but he knows the strings to pull to make the monkeys dance.