Microsoft’s Laptop Hunter campaign a success? Right…
Despite growing market share in the enterprise, the mothership doesn’t compete directly in that segment. However, where the company does chose to play, its products often dominate, claiming 50 percent and higher unit volume shares, and even higher takes of the revenue pie.
While Microsoft and its licenses can claim a roughly 87 percent and falling unit volume hold on the general computer market, which includes cash registers and industrial automation equipment, Beta News reports NPD data indicating that Apple virtually owned the premium, $1,000 and higher segment in June with more than $9 in 10 going to the Cupertino, California-based Mac maker. Moreover, that represents a 3 percent rise over May, putting the lie to the notion Microsoft’s Laptop Hunter ad campaign has been a success or been of much help the company’s suffering OEMs.
More impressive still is the fact that Apple’s command of the premium market is way up from the first quarter of 2008, when, according to NPD, Mac revenue share was 66 percent.
Stumbling more slowly?
The ineffectiveness of Redmond’s poorly executed (”ooh, Blu-ray!”) Laptop Hunter ad campaign will probably be remembered as a cautionary tale. The simple fact is that Apple increased Mac unit volume by 4 percent last quarter — the start up time frame of Microsoft’s blitz — even as PC makers saw sales slump by about the same amount.
At best, Redmond’s most recent market campaign has helped stem the slid in PC market share, though it’s hard to imagine Laptop Hunter has done a thing for their revenue position.
Thereupon, Apple’s success highlights PC makers failure to make more than chump change as average PC selling prices are $489 for desktops and $520 for notebooks. Moreover, these companies most recent notable success story is the netbook, many models of which sell for well under $300 and cannibalize existing sales.
From Microsoft’s perspective, many netbooks don’t even ship with Windows.
And, of course, booming sales of Apple’s superficially more expensive computers—always factor the price of anti-spy/virus/spam/etc software into the price of a PC, as well as a mere three-year lifespan—come at the very depth of the worst recession in generations.
The take aways? Value rules and PCs are still crap at any price…
What’s your take?
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July 24th, 2009
Once you finish patting yourself on the back you might want to review your figures. Is Apple’s share of the premium market revenue 66% or 90% (9 out of every $10). And how about enlightening us with data on how much of total computer spending is actually this premium market? Or how the self build PC market factors into this? The most successful department in the Mothership has always been the marketing department who have been able to create the hype and loyalty that is the strength of the Apple brand. Without them Macs would be a footnote in computer history. So pay homage to the true geniuses of the brand. They are the ones who are convincing people to spend upwards of $1000 dollars to browse the internet and check their emails, even if they could do the same with a $300 netbook.
Macs are certainly nice and shiny and pretty and thin, but then so is Paris Hilton, and I wouldn’t touch her with a barge pole, no matter how good her marketing team is. I’d rather have a proper computer. You know, the one that is cheaper yet more powerful, offers vastly more choice and runs games, freeware & opensource and isn’t dominated by a quasi fascist company that stifles any non sanctioned usage. I’m an intelligent individual – I’m a PC.
July 24th, 2009
@rimmer
Good for you. But the facts above remain. This is business. And Apple must be doing something right. And they are being rewarded for it. MSFT is not, and they are losing profits for the 2nd straight quarter.
And comparing a Mac to “a proper” Windows PC completely discounts how horrible Windows is in defending itself on the ‘Net. Would you at least admit many Windows users are tired of fighting that battle? We Mac users don’t have nearly the issues Windows PCs have in this arena. Maybe, just maybe, the Windows users who have switched are tired of it too. Hence the switch to Macs and the Mac’s continued growth. But you can always claim those pathetic Windows users don’t know how to use a “proper PC.” See, another win for Apple. You don’t and shouldn’t have to be a genius to use a computer in 2009.
Unless a “proper computer” means it has to deal with 100K+ viruses or its not “proper.”
July 24th, 2009
@Rimmer, did you read the article or just skim it? The 66% revenue was “first quarter of 2008″. The 91% was a report that came out this week. And the point of mentioning the two was to show the growth, okay?
After reviewing the article, you may want to stop patting yourself on the back.
July 24th, 2009
The first response proves your point, so there’s nothing else to be said about someone who argues from ignorance. Moving on…
The Laptop Hunters ad fail on many fronts, the first of which is emphasizing initial price as the primary motivator in purchasing states rather unquietly that value is secondary. In other words, “They’re all the same junk, so don’t pay any more for it than you have to!” Would you want to be a Microsoft OEM at this time, in the middle of a recession with your OS supplier touting the low price of your products? Microsoft is pitting its OEMS against each other in a bloody fight to the finish.
Another failure in these ads is the underlying assumption that there are no differences between brands, and further, that there are no differences between Apple and Microsoft OSes. This fits the reductionist beige-box thinking of Microsoft, but the real world isn’t so. I know people who will buy an HP, but would never buy a Gateway. The differences between OS X and Windows 7 again, are even more stark. The ads can’t deal with this fundamental difference, so they keep crowing price, much like the way teenage males will focus on one part of the female anatomy to the exclusion of others and sing its praises.
July 24th, 2009
@Rimmer
First of all, kudos for writing the next “I’m a PC” commercial. Well done. Pure crap that danced in and out of fact and opinion, but good prose.
I guess we can first throw out your last paragraph all together. Between the Paris Hilton nonsense, your complete ignorance of the Mac software industry (games? freeware? opensource? all there), and the snarky bit at the end, we’ll just ignore it.
Because I’m an artsy-fartsy, mindless, brand-following right-brained creative who uses a Mac, I’m going to work backwards through your comments.
“Browse the internet and check their emails”
1) May I see your research on Mac users habits and usage?
2) Additionally, the internet is more than the text browser you may be using (see, I can be snarky too!). There are a lot of Web applications and games that suck a lot of horsepower even through a browser interface. Not to mention if you open a few windows at once.
3) Um, ever heard of music or video on a laptop?
“… most successful department in the Mothership has always been teh marketing department …” I’ll give you that! Amazing, mind-bending folks with their finger on the pulse of the public.
“…self build PC market… ” article is in response to retail sales numbers following/during retail marketing campaign.
“…how much of total computer spending is actually this premium market?” Good question. Has nothing to do with the current comments or discussion. Again … focus … ad campaign, retail sales, premium market. No one is saying that Apple is taking over the computer market, outselling PCs completely, or gobbling up “total computer spending”.
“66% or 90%” It’s around 91% – do some Googling.
It sounds like you might contend that any computer priced over $1000 is mostly fluff. I’m guessing, but you seem to think these statistics quoted here are meaningless. At any rate … that’sjust not true. Apple sells “premium” but also builds “premium.” That’s something missing from the “Laptop Hunter” ads. ALL the specs, not just the ones quickly listed by the “hunters.” Oft overlooked are the ambient light sensors, lit keyboards, LED backed displays, number/variety of ports, actual processor speed, free software, THE OS, etc. I’m not saying ALL these are overlooked, but they can often be the difference between a similar looking HP, and a higher-priced MacBook. And don’t start me on malware.
“… and I’m a Mac.”
July 24th, 2009
I think there is something everyone is ignoring: what does Wall Street think? This can best be appreciated by the value they place on the stock of a company.
Recently, Apple’s stock value (known as Market Capitalization) exceeded that of mighty Google. Microsoft’s value is currently around $205 Billion while Apple’s value, is at more than $141 Billion while Microsoft’s value is at just under $206 Billion. This means that Apple, which has (supposedly) less than 10% of the computer market is worth almost 2/3 the value MS, which has more than 85% of the market.
Wall Street is speaking. They value Apple and they are increasing their belief in it. Their valuation of MS is falling.
If Apple produces a hit product before the end of the year, as some people have predicted, it is possible that Wall Street will push the value of Apple to go above that of MS making it the most valuable tech stock in the world.
July 24th, 2009
The big point is this is for retail sales, not total sales. None of the direct sales from Dell, HP etc…are included in these numbers. Since blogging isn’t really journalism, this isn’t surprising. The vast number of consumers walking into a big box retail stores are hunting for value and lowest cost.
Crowing about the enterprise market without including the channel the majority of the machines are acquired through is pretty typical of the MacPress.
There is no denying Apple has done an outstanding job. There is no real need to selectively present an incomplete picture, but since the author did this at the 66% figure of last year without worrying being accurate, just be prepared to be your own fact checker where his work is concerned.
And if you want to really discuss the subject of stock, you really need to include earnings and price per share. Market cap isn’t really anything you want to give a whole lot of weight to normally.
And they don’t have 10% of the computer market, they have 10% of the desktop segment.
July 25th, 2009
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July 26th, 2009
The problem with comparing Apple and Microsoft is getting real figures. This is important because Microsoft and its supporters include anything with the Windows brand on it, even if the underlying software is completely different from the Windows OS, like Windows Mobile.
Nor do Microsoft’s figures indicate what the computer will be used for or what version of OS is running. So, if a computer is running Windows 2000 for a display which is not connected to the internet, it is included in Microsoft’s market share figures. Likewise, if a computer is running a cash register or the numerical control software on a milling machine. My bank uses a six year old Dell to act as a front end to a mainframe in the basement.
How well does this compare to the markets in which Apple is selling? Not well at all. The relationship is meaningless. If you are interested in learning how popular various 2 door coupes are, how useful are vehicle figures which include trucks, airplanes and submarines?
Nor does it prove anything about MS’s popularity or the status of its future monopoly when about a third of MS’s market share is such single use devises. The problem for MS is that most of those devises are old and it makes little sense to forever maintain them, so they are in jeopardy.
At some point, it will cost less to buy a very cheap embedded Linux display which contains a computer-on-a-chip which is fast enough to run VMware. That way you can continue to run those old, but useful applications without the bother and expense of Microsoft Windows. When this happens, there goes a huge chunk of Microsoft’s market share.
The sales figures used above are very specific: how much of the money being spent at retail stores for laptops with an ASP of above $1000 goes to Apple? 91% What is interesting is that it jumped from 66% 17 months ago. But, how useful are these figures? Not very.
Why? Because we need to know how large the premium market is and how much it has changed. What percentage, of the total Apple laptops being sold, do these figures represent? Can they be considered representative of the laptops sold in other ways? It is not clear whether Apple has increased its sales in a waning or waxing market. Or have the other manufacturers abandoned this market segment?
The latter position seems unlikely because Apple keeps selling higher volumes of laptops and gaining higher percentages of the US and the world market share. So, it appears that consumers are willing to pay more to get Apple’s perceived value.
The problem with statistics is how often they are used to misrepresent the truth. One statistic bandied about is that 50% of American marriages end in divorce. What the people who use that statistic, on the Right or Left, never tell you is the 68% of all marriages end when one of the partners die. How can both statistics be true? But, they are.
The truth which is learned from having both statistics is that the institution of marriage is not in trouble. Rather, it is that the statistic reflects the prevalence of divorce among some groups. If a tiny portion of Americans get divorced four or more times, then this can distort the figures for all people.
Hence, we must be careful about what conclusions we can draw. Then, we must lay the facts out in a clear and compelling way. Only then can we we say what can be learned from them. This was not done well in any of the reports which I have read. Instead, the statistics were used to place the writer’s spin on events. It forces the reader to verify whether the conclusions were true. That smacks too much like propaganda.
July 27th, 2009
” One statistic bandied about is that 50% of American marriages end in divorce. What the people who use that statistic, on the Right or Left, never tell you is the 68% of all marriages end when one of the partners die.”
Living the propaganda… who among us is hoping for death?