Analyst thinks Mac sales ‘defy all logic’
Two large PC industry analyst firms report that the sales of Mac computers is growing quickly towards a double digit share of the personal computer marketplace for the first time in recent memory.
Mac sales continue an upward trend, gaining 7 to 12 percent last quarter, depending on which research group’s theory you subscribe to. Both Gartner and IDC were surprised a bit by another rise in market share by the Apple Mac lineup of computers, but had slightly different takes on reasons as we as the actual numbers. IDC analyst Bob O’Donnell, an IDC vice president, went so far as to say, “Everyone is guessing at Apple’s numbers. Here’s the interesting thing. Last month we called Apple [sales] low, and we got it wrong. I take full blame for that. I thought, ‘How can they possibly maintain share?’ But they defy logic.â€
IDC estimated in July that Apple sold just 1.21 million Macs in the U.S. during the second quarter, according to a ComputerWorld story. Those sales numbers would have put the company down 12.4 percent year-to-year. Just a week later, however, Apple announced it had sold 1.64 million Macs in the Americas and at retail — the vast bulk of the latter also in U.S. stores. That was nearly 2 percent more than the year before. Globally, Apple boosted Mac sales in the second quarter by 4 percent, to 2.6 million machines.
Analysts at Gartner estimated that Apple sold 1.57 million PCs into the domestic market for the quarter ending Sept. 30, an increase of 6.8 percent over 2008. IDC put Mac sales at 1.64 million, or 11.8 percent above last year. Regardless of whose numbers you listen to, Apple’s performance was higher than the industry average in the U.S., which IDC estimated was 2.5 percent and which Gartner guessed at 3.9 percent.
The results of all these numbers is that Apple appears to be very close to a 10 percent PC market share in the U.S. marketplace, and may cross into double-digit territory by the end of the next quarter. That puts Apple in fourth place behind Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer, a respectable position indeed. The smart money is saying that Apple sales will not be hurt by the release of Windows 7 and new computers running Microsoft’s newest operating system. If that is the case, it would seem a certainty that Apple will ring up another increase next quarter. Apple has quality, and it seems that consumers respond to that regardless of price or the shape of the economy.
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October 17th, 2009
We are in a business recession. I doubt that Apple will be hurt much from 7 because they aren’t a player in that segment.
Many others also have quality. It becomes a matter of having to maintain sufficient support infrastructure which has been an issue for them. And as AT&T has found out sharing the wealth is not a priority for Jobs Mobs.
But kudos and a hope for continued growth for Apple.