Apple's Market Share is 8.1%

[Numberzz]

Today, Gartner released statistics statistics saying that Apple's market share is now 8.1%. Apple's U.S. share grew 37.2 percent year-over-year, more than twice as fast as any other manufacturer ranked in Gartner's top 5 PC vendors for the three-month period ending September, helping it get a spot as the No. 3 U.S. PC vendor overall. Dell was able to maintain the No. 1 position in the U.S. market although its year-over-year growth rate was below the U.S. average, declining 5.5 percent. The decline was mainly attributed to weaker consumer growth.

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[apowerr]

Apple's market share is now 8.1%.

"Times are changing" Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part II

[Numberzz]

That about sums it up.

[Yami Bakura]

Good to see Apple gaining marketshare.

[Ayanami]

If this keeps up, MS will be releasing MS Vista for Mac.

[scj312]

If this keeps up, MS will be releasing MS Vista for Mac.

Meet the Intel Mac

[DarkLord7854]

http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/10....est.fall.2007/

 

Conflict? O.o

[Numberzz]

This will all be figured out on Monday when they release quarterly results.

[foyaeman]

Finally - Apple is beginning to receive the market share it deserves

[Former PC Fanboy]

Sorry to burst your bubble guys, Apple does not have 8.1% share of the computing public as the story implies.

 

That's 8.1% share of the sales for one sales quarter and only of PCs sold at major retailers (major enough to care to report their sales) or through PC makers (meaning it does not include the significant sums of people who build their own PCs or many smaller mom & pop shops who also build & sell PCs). With those numbers factored in I am sure the market share even for that quarter is effectivley less than what is stated.

 

Don't get me wrong, I believe Apple's increased sales are putting it on target toward gaining some market share of the overall public in time, but it still has a long long way to go. Once Apple reaches a significant share of the general public keep your eye on malware makers as they will start targetting Macs and we will see the first Anti-Virus/Spyware software suites pop up for Apple.

 

In my opinion, as someone who spent 2 years selling computer technology and another 2 years selling & fixing PCs (that's 4 years of total "frontline" experience selling PC technology to consumers), Apple needs a low priced unit to enter the market.

 

They have the Mac Mini you say? It's not quite low priced enough. There are PC packages out there to be had - complete with Monitor, PC, & Printer - for about $450-$500, which is still $100+ less than the Mac Mini which has equivalent specs and all you get is the PC.

 

I hear rumors of a Mac Nano being released and replacing the Mac Mini, and if that happens I can only hope that it sells for $399-$499, has GOOD specs (on par or CLOSE to a PC of equivalent price). Once that happens, not only will I personally purchase one, but I believe many customers who walk into a major electronics retailer like the one I work at will give it a serious look.

 

The problem for Apple is that people like to compare memory and processors and hard drive space directly with each PC. Now that they are on the same hardware architecture it is a very VALID comparison (as opposed to the PowerPC days when one could argue a Mac of a certain clock speed worked way differently than a PC). When customers see 1.86Ghz, 1GB RAM, and 80GB HD for the same price as a Core 2 Duo of a faster speed, 2GB RAM, and 250GB HD, not to mention they get a free monitor and printer too, Apple very quickly loses the game.

 

By offering a competetive price (not even saying super low price) on a computer that could compete directly with mid-range ($450-$550) PCs Apple would do itself a big favor. Sure, their profit margin on each individual unit might drop a little, but they would win over more converts who could later buy more expensive iMacs AND gain real market share (not to mention make up some lost profits in the amount of volume they would now do). It'd be a good investment for them.

[kurmiic]

Well As regards to the sales percent that is true - it is really variable and the 8.1 % doesn't reflect the real situation.

 

And as regards the price. I think Apple will not drop their price margin because that would put the prestigue of their products in jepardy. I mean their sales approach is that their systems are way more reliable than equivalent windows based systems and the whole sales image of the products is always been supported withe the price difference. ... And if you have run any serious benchmark tests involving fairly similar macs and pcs then you would know that apple systems are about 38 % more effective on use of the cpu and ram resources. The Only problem i see is the new campaign that tends to concentrate on the facts how to slag off windows not how to inform people of the amazing mac os effectivness.

 

And i think if you know a little bit about the arhitecture of mac os, you should be aware of the differences with windows and because of that i would certainly assure you that spyware and malware as well as viruses is not going to be such a problem after all .... i mean people who make viruses don't do it because they want a lot of people to suffer .... they do it because in windows YOU CAN : )

[Synaesthesia]

I have to agree with Former PC Fanboy... It's true, especially if you see that most of apple's sales are in Laptops. Their desktops are maybe just a bit worse value. Although they are unique and beautiful, I love them! A mac nano would be super sweet.

[Conroe Mac]

I also agree with former PC Fanboy and I would also point out that these are US market share numbers. Apple computers are much less common in other parts of the world. Apple hardware is expensive! =)