Apple snaps up small biz share
Even as consumers held off Mac portable purchases in September (anticipating new products), Apple still managed impressive unit volume gains as competitors wilted.
With IT managers in enterprise running out of excuses not to support the Mac and enterprise users themselves quite satisfied with OS X 10.5, it will come as little surprise the fairer operating system is also getting tread in the small business segment.
BusinessWeek (via AppleInsider) reports that, although growth in the consumer segment shriveled from 54 percent to just just 9 percent, Apple tripled its share of the small business market.
“The growth in Mac shipments in [the home] market slowed abruptly from 54 percent in June to just 9 percent in September, and the Mac’s share in this market actually declined from 12.0 percent to 10.3 percent. Since the decline was confined to the notebook segment, the most plausible explanation is that potential buyers of Mac notebooks postponed their purchases in advance of the well-publicized introduction of new models on Oct 11. Oct sales data tend to support this view”—Charlie Wolf, Needham & Co.
See also Apple small business market share up to 27%, IT Facts
According to Wolf, Apple saw its share of the market for firms with 100 or fewer employees skyrocket from just 1.9 percent in June to 5.6 percent last month. So, even though home computer buyers were pulling back as the credit crunch tightened its grip, small business owners picked up the slack, accounting for almost 100% percentof the sequential increase in Mac sales from June to September.
According to Mikako Kitagawa, lead PC analyst, Gartner via MSNBC:
The reaction to Vista wasn’t that great. Vista looks nice, but the reaction from the market was ‘So what?’ With Apple’s Intel-based computers, you can run both the Mac OS and the Windows OS at the same time. That has opened up more opportunities for Apple in the business market
Vista’s palsied appeal has left many small business owners looking for an alternative this upgrade cycle. With its style, five-plus-year average lifespan, lack of malware and high customer satisfaction ratings, Apple’s Macintosh is well positioned for additional gains with small business and in the enterprise, too.
Besides, when push comes to shove, like Ms Kitagawa said, a Mac can also do Windows. Easy, like taking out the trash…
What’s your take?
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November 27th, 2008
Apple isn’t enterprise friendly. Nothing has changed. Reasons aren’t excuses.
While all the percentage increases sound amazing, actual number units remain small.
Can Apple grab a share of the small business market? Of course. Nice hardware, competitive pricing and buzz appeal.
Can Apple grab a share of the enterprise market? Not likely, unless Jobs goes insane.
November 28th, 2008
There are plenty of places for Apple to nest in the SME and enterprise markets. Besides, Apple doesn’t need huge share to dominate—they have around 10% of the overall US market yet have corned one-third of the available revenue. Apple’s place is in the executive suite, legal and marketing departments, people that are willing to pay more to be reassured about their exaggerated sense of self-worth.
Accounting? Let them eat Dell.
November 28th, 2008
Which shows you don’t know much about enterprise computing. The computer you plug in is the least of it. Think Jobs is acting like the enterprise doesn’t exist for some enigmatic marketing reason?
Apple has one third of retail revenue in a small, slice not total. The figure you quote leaves off direct sales. If you want to dismiss Servers, switches, basically anything but laptops, you might have a point.
The marketing buzz about droves of CEO’s demanding IT make Apple products welcome is nonsense and wishful thinking.