If these are the winners, I’m sure glad we don’t have pictures of the losers!
The Inquirer – Tuesday 19 September 2006:
The limited interest in Apple’s operating systems is starting to dwindle.
According to Techweb, data gathered by Net Applications shows that the Mac OS had 4.35 per cent of the world’s operating system share last December. Now it only has 4.33 per cent.
While this is not much of a dip, it reverses a trend that saw interest in Apple’s operating system actually growing a few years back.
What is worse, from Apple’s perspective, is that its operating system is losing ground in favour of Windows XP, which even Microsoft admits is a bit out of date. XP has 84.18 per cent of the operating systems used by machines accessing the Web sites measured by Net Applications during August.
One has to wonder why Apple can’t compete when the opposition has been blasted for its security holes and has a product that is years out of date. Apple executives might be wondering what will happen to its operating system if Vista takes off, or Linux ever turns itself into a proper desktop.
#14 Gregory
“that doesn’t make the hardware limited, that makes the expansion options limited. Wrong terminology.”
That is exactly what I said.
read carefully
“It’s that their hardware is one step behind the rest of the market. Yeah, it’s pretty but it is also limited in expansion and options. ” -J
All true! All correct terminology
All of this is over a 0.02% drop in the total Apple share of the world’s desktops?!?! Did anybody ask how many more Macs are in use today versus a year ago?
This drop in Apple’s total world share could have just as well come from the sale of millions of the $100 Linux laptop bound for developing countries.
This is much ado about nothing. Apple makes money on Macs. It will stay in business as long as Macs make money.
You know, a see a lot of sour grapes here. If tou want quality and reliability, you have to pay for it. In the long run you have a much better experience with an Apple product. I’ve never heard of anyone ever switching FROM an Apple Mac to Windows.
As for value, Macs hold their price better. 1GHz G4’s are selling for $500 on Ebay… even in light of their obsolete Motorolla CPU. 1GHz brand name windows PC’s are selling for about $70.
What was that trend again??…
Apple Computer Inc.
Gross Profit:
2005: 4,043,000
2004: 2,259,000
2003: 1,708,000
2006 statements due out near the end of September.
Above numbers are in 1000’s. (2005: 4.04 billion etc.)
Apple needs to Dump there product on the market….
Take a loss for 1-2 years…
Saturate the computer market, with the idea, that you can RUN BOTH OS’s…
Sales and profit indicate that the message is getting out just fine. Growing too fast can be bad as well. Growth estimate for this year will be close to 50%…or roughly $6 billion in gross profit.
This post has stirred up the hornets’ nest. I don’t think there is much of a correlation between these numbers, not mentioning the extremely small sample space used to make these statistics. Are there not more intresting & objective stories out there? P.S. writing this on OSX, which I never would have used until the company allowed users to install Windows.
JimR
From what I remember Apple may need to restate their financial results as far back as 2002
Besides I think the numbers you posted are revenue not profit or are completly off all together. I think their profit is considerably less it is like ~ 7% of their revenue.
Here is an article in Forbes Oct 2005 about the 2005 profits http://tinyurl.com/o6nao
Anyway their share of the computer market is not what is making them all that money it is higher margins and IPOD and music sales.
This surprises me actually. I thought with the recent Mac Ads that they could increase their market share. I guess not.
Long Live Microsoft.
34: That trend you’re looking at is the increased profit from iPods, which are competitively priced and work far better than other MP3 players.
Unfortunately, Mac computers are overpriced compared to PCs. Businesses won’t buy more Macs unless they’re already Mac shops (graphics businesses, for instance).
Apple can increase its market share in PC hardware if:
1. Its computers are priced about the same as comparable PCs (not there yet, still overpriced and hard to upgrade unless you buy the bigger machines), and
2.can run the same software that PCs do (which they can if they dual boot Windows and OSX).
My info is as correct as Yahoo Finance.
AAPL Yahoo Finance
oops
I was reading Forbes and subconsciously placed credit to them for that link. Forgive me I am tired. Must sleep soon
Another thing I missed was that it was “GROSS” profit. The posting of gross profit is somewhat misleading considering most people don’t know what it really represents and would believe they made that much expendable cash.
Just so everyone understands they did not make 4 billion in profit in 2005. They still had to pay operating costs out of that. After all is said and done in 2005 they made $1.3 B in profit. In 2004 it was $270 M. In 2003 $69 M So, they are in a definite upswing but like it was pointed out that isn’t as much because of their computer division.
You know what, make OS X look like iTunes 7 and windows user will love it. It’s really that simple. Really.
I doubt that any one of a bunch of computer geeks with nothing better to do than argue the old Mac vs PC crap could score with any of those lovely young women. As a parent I find it offensive that you would insult them online just to sex up your blog.
You really can’t use a 0.02% difference to conclude anything. Anything below a certain procentage is just statistical uncertainty, nothing more.
Yawn…let’s move on people. This argument is SO 1980’s….it was lame back then and it’s still lame now.
Who CARES what computer OS you like or dislike…it’s not a fricken religion.
#47:
“Who CARES what computer OS you like or dislike…it’s not a fricken religion.”
Well said. But maybe it takes a lot of faith to put your money on an underpowered but expensive pc with less than 5 percent of the world’s users. Simply said, OSX is a cosmetic theme park for perpetual neophytes.
Apple fanboy alert you’ve been warned
It’s a mantra for me: the whole computer paradigm needs to be re-defined.
The current computer paradigm (with an obtrusive OS) has plateaued. Everyone who is going to buy a computer already has done so. Now, they are selling replacement/second computers to the same market.
The next computer should have no noticeable OS — like a a Play Station or your TiVo. It should be an appliance that meets a desire.
And I think that desire is entertainment and media.
So, I think the next generation of computers may not be seen as computers, at all.
Instead they’ll probably be some sort of all-in-one entertainment appliance which also can do VOIP, web surf, etc. Apple is as suited as any to deliver something like this.
Apples is now a consumer electronics gadjet company that sells thier own product exclusive in thier candy coated stores.
The stores pay for themselves.
Channeling via chain stores crunch thier bottom line.
Their sales force is specifically trained to sell thier products on a higher profit margin than rivals.
Where as if a customer goes into a computer store its hit or miss if the store has proper inventory or if the salesman will service the customer properly.
besides,
Why spend milions writing code when you can get 99cents per download for doing nothing.
The education market is starting to drool over Macs again…because they no longer need to make a Mac/Win decision, and no longer need to have separate spaces for both.
this actually is caused by all my work-day hits to dvorak.org/blog…. once traffic here slows down, we’ll show a rise in macshare again.
Mac hardware is cool. Finally I can put XP on a Mac. In business software environment, no one use Mac. At least not in all our client based in Asia.
I’m looking at fifty three comments on a new post, hell, even teen sex couldn’t generate that much traffic, or, it could be the demographic here is a bit different than mainstream humanity.
The miracle is that computing, of whatever flavor, enables us to do so much more than we can with a pen and paper, a printing press or even a comic book.
I have to agree with #55 on their assessment of the amount of traffic generated.
By the way, the young “Apple Queen” court are all probably wonderful young women, and deserve more than a cheap shot from a stranger on the web. (and they are at a minimum, quite cute. I don’t think they are supposed to look like adult film stars for that contest)
I think the Apple losing share thing is just plain silly. It is true that most people who are buying new computers ask their friends/neighbors/children/parents, etc and they are most often told, ” Go out to ‘s website and order the $600 PC they have out there. ”
Those of us who support PCs for a living, don’t want to deal with trying to teach a family member over the phone how to use a Mac.
So Apple is selling more Macs every quarter, but they’re losing market share? I don’t buy that. I know more people than own Macs now (including myself) than I did a year ago.
This number is totally bogus. Apple market share (units sold) is maybe 1.5% tops. It is no where near anything like 4.5%. Lol.
I suspect that, while Apple is indeed selling more Macs every quarter, Wintel is also selling proportionally more Wintel machines every quarter, thus the relative numbers change little and Apple does not grow market share…
And I thought the political threads on here were full of bullshit…