US Mac share nearing 10%
Further evidence that Apple’s fortunes continue to improve, despite a faltering economy and aggressive price cutting by PC makers.
Gartner reports that market data indicates that Apple was still the third-most popular computer brand in the US last quarter. Moreover, the market analytics firm also found that Macs accounted for 9.5% of unit volume sales, a full percentage point higher than Gartner’s last mention in July.
“Despite the back to school sales season, the US home market did not see its typical seasonal spike during the quarter,” said Mika Kitagawa, principal analyst, Client Computing Markets group. “The continued decline of the average selling price (ASP) of PCs did not stimulate sales as much at the vendors had hoped.”
Those are interesting observations, given that those are Apple’s core constituencies and that most analysts haven’t seen a major slowdown in Mac sales. Thereupon, Bloomberg says it expects Mac sales to come in at 2.8 million units, about a 30% rise over last year.
Further, this data and observation are all the more interesting because Apple hasn’t been lowering prices month after month to drive sales the way PC makers have been forced to. In both good times and facing recessionary pressures, Apple has continued to deliver growth that’s been four or five times the industry average for the last 14 of 15 quarters, says Apple COO Tim Cook.
Given that the company’s just upgraded its entire portable line, it’s a good bet that if any computer maker can maintain growth momentum, it will be Apple.
Need more proof? Whereas the competition has been cutting prices for well on a year, in order to prop up flagging sales, Apple yesterday cut the price of a single model by $100 even as sales surge.
Honestly, it’s not so much that Macs cost more, for many people, it’s more the case that PCs are crap at any price…
What’s your take?
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October 15th, 2008
“Honestly, it’s not so much that Macs cost more, for many people, it’s more the case that PCs are crap at any price…
What’s your take?”
That you’re a fanboy. That has to be one of the stupidest statements I’ve read in a long time.
October 15th, 2008
stupidest, indeed. don’t you mean stupider?
October 16th, 2008
Exactly, how is that a stupid statement, when the published data seems to validate exactly that argument?
Which part of the ‘for many people’ in that statement did you not get? Or were you merely hung up on the words ‘PCs are crap’ part, which I tend to agree with but would have stated a bit differently, maybe. The author asked for your take, and you did indeed offer precisely that, labeling him a ‘fanboy.’ So, anybody who happens to sport a particular choice over a cheaper alternative is a fanboy? Having an opinion and being a fan is a negative thing only when the opinion is mostly baseless and the fandom is blind – which I’m not convinced is the case here with the author.
October 16th, 2008
krquet,
No. saying at any price makes it a stupid statement. Any price means more expensive as well as less expensive.
If you are reporting “many people” using a the criteria of a small slice of a market, unless 10% has suddenly become more significant than 90%, or many people are offered a free $7,000 PC and would rather have a free Mini is an example of “at any price.”
The all PC’s are crap seems to be wrong since almost any business you walk into is going to be running them. I’ve been an IT manager for many years and I can assure you neither owners or senior management is going to put their job or business on the line for “crap”. I’ve been responsible for hundreds of machines that run for years with no issues.
I’m typing this on a 17″ laptop that came with a core dual, 60 gig sata hard drive and a gig of RAM. I spent around $100 upgrading the HD and the RAM, doubling each, that brought the price to $899.
I’ve used it now for three years, it has a built in media reader and firewire. Zero problems with the PC. Probably because it has Asus guts, just like many of the Macs.
I’m typing this from Linux, but I have also run OSX86, and MS media center on it. I have nothing against Apple products, Jobs has done an outstanding turn around.
I have issues with the effortless flopping between numbers and categories telling partial truths. Like overtaking Dell in education sales, which doesn’t mean schools are running on Macs, the students are buying them as personal computers. Or that the remaining 80% of those sales are for PC’s. Or that Apple has the lions share of $1,000 plus sales when the actual numbers are from retail sales, and the millions of computers sold directly aren’t figured in.
Apple’s computers are far from problem free, power supplies, hard drives and poor quality LCD’s are just some of the recent issues a quick scan of Mac forum turns up.
I’m not saying that people are stupid to buy Macs, I’m not saying they are poor quality and I’m not a Window’s zealot.
91% of computers sold were not Macs. All the other manufacturers also had positive increases. I can double my money if I have a penny and acquire another one. I can have a million dollars and have a much smaller increase if I only gain 5%. Using the authors logic, I’m better off with the penny.
And I did mean stupidest:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stupidest
October 17th, 2008
you said a lot, but all I heard was, “Freetard!” repeated over and over. that all the time you spend learning and relearning and installing and re-installing and debugging and getting rid of spyware and viruses and just defending your embrace of useless “expert” knowledge is somehow justifiable let alone economical. and, no, you really did say “stupider.” which is to say, you grasped the grammar, but failed to grok the meaning.
freetard
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=freetard
I’m not saying you’re a penny idiot, pound… oh, why go on?!?
October 17th, 2008
“you said a lot, but all I heard was, “Freetard!”
A true believer, eh?
October 17th, 2008
The 1990’s called and wanted their rhetoric back. I’ll try anyway.
One Button Mouse. Feel better?
The 1960’s called and said “Grok” has been discontinued.
Interesting you don’t attempt to address any of the points, you just call names.
Only zealots consider knowledge a bad thing.
Your post passed through dozens of Servers, the odds of one of them running OSX is so small, it may as well be zero. Which explains the nice living I make with my worthless knowledge.
And considering OSX is a GUI bolted on BSD, free and open software, the irony of your post is deafening.
Enjoy your free range chicken freedom.
October 17th, 2008
Gee, Ken, did I hit a nerve?
Here’s one for ya: Hey, the 21st century just called and wants to know if you finished training your Indian replacement yet?
October 18th, 2008
Oooh, the biting wit. Since troubleshooting end users isn’t what I do, I’m not concerned.
Still waiting for you to come out of the sandbox and let the cat use it. Might as well leave the Mac Daily News you get your witty retorts from in there as well.