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If you ignore the global economy, the magnitude of the sub-$1000 PC market relative to the $1000+ PC market, and the fact that you can run Windows on an Apple P

If you ignore the global economy, the magnitude of the sub-$1000 PC market relative to the $1000+ PC market, and the fact that you can run Windows on an Apple PC, then this article makes sense. Otherwise...

markerdmann 17y ago
You make a good point, joechung, and I've been trying to find the related statistics. This is what I've been able to come up with so far: Apple had 14% of the US retail PC market in Feb. 2008 - http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/17/apple_snags_14_percent_of_us_based_pc_retail_sales_in_february.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/17/apple_snags_14... This article claims the number was 8.7% in the 2nd quarter of 2009 - http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/15/single_digit_growth_boosts_apples_share_of_us_pc_market_to_8_7.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/15/single_digit_g... According to this article on theappleblog.com, Apple has 4% of the global PC market as of July 2009 - http://theappleblog.com/2009/07/25/does-apple-have-a-91-percent-share-of-the-high-end/ http://theappleblog.com/2009/07/25/does-apple-have-a-91-perc... If anyone has more, I'd be very curious to see them (especially the ratio of sub-$1000 retail PC sales to $1000+ retail PC sales).
- trapper 17y ago
  Listening to "statistics" from people who quote percentages is really dangerous. Percentages are really, really, easy to lie with. And for people who only quote percentages, this is usually what they are trying to do. Spin.
  - GQB 17y ago
    You need both. Percentages are better for showing movement (e.g. growth), while absolute numbers give context.
- eli 17y ago
  4% globally could be right. Keep in mind that retail is just one slice of the pie. PCs dominate overwhelmingly in the enterprise.
iamelgringo 17y ago
The article makes even more sense if you ignore hardware geeks, PC gaming enthusiasts and case modders. I don't see tons of teenage gamers lining up to buy new motherboards and 3 PCIx graphics cards for their Mac Pro. ref: http://www.anandtech.com/ http://www.anandtech.com/ http://www.tomshardware.com/us/#redir http://www.tomshardware.com/us/#redir http://www.overclockersclub.com/ http://www.overclockersclub.com/ http://images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&q=case+mods&sourceid=opera&oe=utf-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=hWNySsf5BIy0sgOyiKDICA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4 http://images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&...
- jonny_noog 17y ago
  I used to be a case modder, put together my last three PCs myself. Got sick of it. Now I have a Mac Pro.
  - wglb 17y ago
    I do both. Except for the case mod.
  - PStamatiou 17y ago
    I'm exactly the same way as jonny_noog here. I grew up case modding, going to lan parties, winning fastest-pc-build competitions and all of that. Then I went to college and got a Mac mini a year into it after seeing some friends with Macs. then I got a Macbook, then an iMac, then a MBP, then the new MBP, then the MB Air, then the new MBP... now I'm a big Mac guy.
    - _pi 17y ago
      So you fell into the social pressure aspect of Apple's Marketing technique? I thought of getting a Mac for college, however for the price it doesn't offer much over a Lenovo or a Dell. You get alot of nice touches, but those things I'd never use. Multi-touch trackpad? Unibody? There are products out there that do those things much better, such as tablets and toughbooks. Mac is like a DND bard, jack of all trades master of none, and not even better than a master of one. They're nice, they're shiny, but you want toughness? Get a toughbook. You want battery life? Get a Lenovo t400. You want something light that you can surf the web with? Netbook. If you want to impress your friends about how much better your purchase is, then get a Mac.
twilightmoon 17y ago
The magnitude of the $1000+ PC market in terms of # of widgets sold, or in terms of revenue? In case you were not aware, Apple's market cap is higher than Dell and HP combined who together sell over 50% of the domestic units in the US, which is Apple's strongest market. Businesses are ultimately formed to create revenue and profit, not shift widgets. Microsoft has apparently taken their eyes off this fact after 2 decades of easily collected fat profits, but monopolies can be lost if you sit fat and happy on them. People often talk about Apple's "market share" in terms of widgets, but how often do you hear the media talk about Apple's "market share" of the total revenue in the computer market? I've never heard it mentioned once* in decades of following the computer industry. Profit is what matters, not widgets. *by mentioned once I mean the main stream media, I've heard it mentioned on Mac blogs. But I've never seen the media show a break down of the exact % of the profit Apple pulls out of the computer industry. I'd love to see one.

markerdmann 17y ago

You make a good point, joechung, and I've been trying to find the related statistics. This is what I've been able to come up with so far: Apple had 14% of the US retail PC market in Feb. 2008 - http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/17/apple_snags_14_percent_of_us_based_pc_retail_sales_in_february.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/17/apple_snags_14... This article claims the number was 8.7% in the 2nd quarter of 2009 - http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/15/single_digit_growth_boosts_apples_share_of_us_pc_market_to_8_7.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/15/single_digit_g... According to this article on theappleblog.com, Apple has 4% of the global PC market as of July 2009 - http://theappleblog.com/2009/07/25/does-apple-have-a-91-percent-share-of-the-high-end/ http://theappleblog.com/2009/07/25/does-apple-have-a-91-perc... If anyone has more, I'd be very curious to see them (especially the ratio of sub-$1000 retail PC sales to $1000+ retail PC sales).

trapper 17y ago
Listening to "statistics" from people who quote percentages is really dangerous. Percentages are really, really, easy to lie with. And for people who only quote percentages, this is usually what they are trying to do. Spin.
- GQB 17y ago
  You need both. Percentages are better for showing movement (e.g. growth), while absolute numbers give context.
eli 17y ago
4% globally could be right. Keep in mind that retail is just one slice of the pie. PCs dominate overwhelmingly in the enterprise.

iamelgringo 17y ago

The article makes even more sense if you ignore hardware geeks, PC gaming enthusiasts and case modders. I don't see tons of teenage gamers lining up to buy new motherboards and 3 PCIx graphics cards for their Mac Pro. ref: http://www.anandtech.com/ http://www.anandtech.com/ http://www.tomshardware.com/us/#redir http://www.tomshardware.com/us/#redir http://www.overclockersclub.com/ http://www.overclockersclub.com/ http://images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&q=case+mods&sourceid=opera&oe=utf-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=hWNySsf5BIy0sgOyiKDICA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4 http://images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&...

jonny_noog 17y ago
I used to be a case modder, put together my last three PCs myself. Got sick of it. Now I have a Mac Pro.
- wglb 17y ago
  I do both. Except for the case mod.
- PStamatiou 17y ago
  I'm exactly the same way as jonny_noog here. I grew up case modding, going to lan parties, winning fastest-pc-build competitions and all of that. Then I went to college and got a Mac mini a year into it after seeing some friends with Macs. then I got a Macbook, then an iMac, then a MBP, then the new MBP, then the MB Air, then the new MBP... now I'm a big Mac guy.
  - _pi 17y ago
    So you fell into the social pressure aspect of Apple's Marketing technique? I thought of getting a Mac for college, however for the price it doesn't offer much over a Lenovo or a Dell. You get alot of nice touches, but those things I'd never use. Multi-touch trackpad? Unibody? There are products out there that do those things much better, such as tablets and toughbooks. Mac is like a DND bard, jack of all trades master of none, and not even better than a master of one. They're nice, they're shiny, but you want toughness? Get a toughbook. You want battery life? Get a Lenovo t400. You want something light that you can surf the web with? Netbook. If you want to impress your friends about how much better your purchase is, then get a Mac.

twilightmoon 17y ago

The magnitude of the $1000+ PC market in terms of # of widgets sold, or in terms of revenue? In case you were not aware, Apple's market cap is higher than Dell and HP combined who together sell over 50% of the domestic units in the US, which is Apple's strongest market. Businesses are ultimately formed to create revenue and profit, not shift widgets. Microsoft has apparently taken their eyes off this fact after 2 decades of easily collected fat profits, but monopolies can be lost if you sit fat and happy on them. People often talk about Apple's "market share" in terms of widgets, but how often do you hear the media talk about Apple's "market share" of the total revenue in the computer market? I've never heard it mentioned once* in decades of following the computer industry. Profit is what matters, not widgets. *by mentioned once I mean the main stream media, I've heard it mentioned on Mac blogs. But I've never seen the media show a break down of the exact % of the profit Apple pulls out of the computer industry. I'd love to see one.