Mac OS X market share up 29%, Leopard still most common - Page 3

Wow, Windows sure it dominant. It's good to see the Mac still growing though.

Yes I forgot, you are always right and everyone else is wrong. SL was buggy on release, that is a fact, so was Leopard, I can't say about Tiger because I didn't upgrade until around 10.4.3. If you were impressed by the stability, then all that says is you don't have a high standard level.

Same here, let's wait for tomorrow's results on NetMarketShare (most interestingly this table), which are global.

Windows used to be far more dominant. It's in fact experienced its greatest decline in share (along with share value) under Ballmer.

I had that situation in my local coffee shop. When I opened my Mac book Pro someone shouted out "that's number 12 now". I looked up and all the patrons had Macs of various flavors. We all laughed and it became a great conversation piece.

Not sure how true this is, or what the issues are, but I for one, can't afford to upgrade if there are ANY issues! The mac's here are used to run a business, and without them working, we'd have a harder time doing our business.

We use a few application,s that likely won't work, or work well with Snow Leopard (FreeHand for one),, and having used these applications for years, we can't take any chances.

Yes, we could put Snow Leopard on one machine just to see, but I haven't heard anything earthe shattering that says we should upgrade?

We're at the point of, if it ain't broke, then don't try to fix it.

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OS X is slowly gaining market share. I said for al these years I would like to see about 12% US share and a 7% world share for Apple. I am one of the few people that enjoys the same friendly would of Mac users.

All this back-and-forth makes no sense anyway. XP is what it is because so many businesses use it. They just don't upgrade fast, plain and simple. Apple is profit driven, not market share driven.

Also, all of the people I know who own an Intel Mac run Windows on them. So who cares which has the bigger market share? The two OSes are no longer mutually exclusive, and each has their good points as well as bad.

Oh and two generations would bring you to Tiger. That is what...2005 release with last update 2007? As well as the fastest OS on a G4 PPC machine? Two generations of Windows would be XP, and over 50% use it still. You're saying there are so many netbooks sold it accounts for 30% of XP's marketshare?

If you're going to argue in percentages, don't bring "install base" into it according to size. Use percentages throughout your argument.

OS X as it stands (the full version of the OS) will gain share probably in proportion to the expansion or growth (assuming it'll grow) of the Premium market. The Premium end of the market being what it is, there will be natural limits on its growth, but that doesn't matter because the quality of products in this segment (coupled with the kinds of margins you find in this segment) render the Premium end fairly safe. You don't have to move a lot of product to make money in this end, and there'll always be folks with a lot of disposable $$ swishing around, or folks that are willing to pay more for *certain* goods due to the value proposition they perceive in those goods. Apple's performance in this recession has proved this abundantly.

So really we're looking at limited growth for OS X on Macs qua Macs, but still appreciable growth given the segment. That's not a problem, just natural behaviour for this kind of beast. In the Premium end it isn't about overall share, but about share of the Premium end, and Apple rules this end. A safe and happy situation.

Where you'll see growth of OS X - as we're seeing it now - is in the mobile space. As OS X converges with the iPhone OS and Apple shifts to a different computing paradigm, that is, Macs will become more iPad-like and in turn iPads will become more powerful and flexible, we'll see a much more broad adoption of OS X, part of the reason being that it'll be a sub-$1000 entry fee to get into Apple computing products. Chances are that even in its more mobile, touch-based iterations OS X will still run on devices in the Premium segment or devices that are otherwise priced higher than competing devices (competing slates, etc.), but growth will still be faster and greater in proportion.

I couldn't live without mine. In addition to doing all my email and web browsing, it's a four-track recording studio, a stock checker, a gaming platform, my facebook interface, my news reader, my remote control, my Danish language teacher, my calendar, my movie ticket purchaser, my TV Guide, my portable planetarium, my music player, and moreall in the palm of my hand. Beats the hell out of all my pre-2003 Macs.

O! be some other name: Whats in a name? That which we call a Mac by any other name would compute as sweet.

They're close. Close enough for the industry to designate them as miniature computing devices. That's what the iPhone brings to the table, at least. Combine the top apps in each category on the App Store, including the better VNC apps, plus access to your iDisk, ability to edit MS documents, etc., and you've got a pocket computer.

It's not funny. It's the reality of Apple's innovative approach to mobile computing hitting the industry right in the face. By the looks of it, the industry is *still* reeling from the shot Apple laid down in 2007, followed by the App Store, and it's about to witness the pile-driver called the iPad. We can't even really conceive of the impact the iPad will have - it'll be THAT big.

You don't have to believe me or anyone else on these forums. I encourage the forlorn Win/PC advocates to stick around though and see exactly how it's going to go down. They're about to see just how far ahead of the pack Apple is in terms of ideas. While you're bleating about raw specs and particular features, Apple is changing the entire way we view and work with content. The fundamentals. That is, while ABC netbook maker is working to shoehorn whatever awful version of Winblows onto a shrunken notebook or slate, Apple is changing the very fundamentals of how we use tech and its role in our lives - both functionally and aesthetically. This goes way deeper than adding a camera or a connectivity port. It's about Apple's entire software/hardware ecosystem, primed and ready to go with ridiculous ease of use, a great UI design and a remarkable flexible OS as part of the package. It's pretty clear that Apple has this part of the industry figured out and locked up for the next few years at least.

We're looking at another iPod phenomenon here. Easily. But this time it'll mean much more for everyone and the effects will be much farther-reaching, for PC and Mac users alike.

I have a 2006 Intel iMac with 2gig ram. I installed snow leopard as a clean install and I haven't had any problems. I've got Leopard running on my PowerPC mac mini and it works great. My overall experience since dumping windows has been great. Any problems that I have encountered were quickly resolved usually by using google to search out the answer.

I think that Macs in general can be kept in use longer than any windows machine. So, for me the cost of ownership is much lower. Macs do not seem to eat hard drives like my windows systems did.

It's simple, you have to pay for quality.

All you need to do is check out their resale value. It speaks volumes. Even old Macs can fetch a pretty penny.

Nothing you wrote changes the fact that the iPhone, or the iPhone touch is not a Mac, they are mobile computer devices running the iPhone OS.

Old Macs as in PPC maybe, but the price of Macs has dropped quite a bit in the last few years. The top Mac Mini now about 60% the price of the original top Mac Mini.

Cool!

Right...But Quadra is right on this....in business, if you're not 'growing' your 'dying!'

I was waiting at a coffee shop to meet up with a friend one afternoon about 3 years ago. I was the ONLY one in the place with a not-Mac. No, there was no gesturing and pointing, but still...! I was also the oldest guy in the place by far.

Now, I run an all-Mac fleet except for the Dell desktop I have for doing work in Office 2003. And before anyone says anything, Office for the Mac is not, repeat NOT, compatible with Office for the PC if you have any macros at all. Run a spreadsheet with VBA macros in OftM and it barfs all over the rug.

I have one of the first Mac Minis, with the G4 processor. It was bought so I could see what all the excitement was about, and I decided to make the transition (except for one last PC I use for stuff I can't do on my Macs).

It is coming up fast on 5 years old, almost-daily usage, and all I did was put a bigger hard disc in it. It now is "retired", serving as a music player; one big iPod if you will. Just about every CD I own is in it, and soon will have my little bit of vinyl and a handful of cassettes I still have. I'll run it until it fails. Somehow, I think that will be a while.

I'm not sure what Balmer has to do with the decline, at least in a direct sense. He's an ill-tempered, strange man, but that is beside the point I think. The reason the share is declining is because Microsoft is just plain not offering anything really new or better.

I have a Win7 machine where I work. I find the interface more annoying than ever, with all manner of new "features" I just plain do not like. It also tends to lock up FAR more often than the XP machine I had at my previous workplace. -shrug- It's not my money...

is that you have no idea what a Mac is. This thing I carry around in my pocket has the soul of a Mac, it runs Mac OSX, and the first words out of my mouth after booting the thing up for the first time were: Holy @&"$ this is a pocket Mac.
I'm wondering: do you own an iPhone or iPod Touch?

Windows 7 will catch up very quickly and take over any gains that apple has made. Windows 7 is a fine os. Apple's rise is miniscule in the whole scheme of things.

I've been a mac user for 20 years. My daughter and I have been mac fanatics and we do like windows 7. Her MacBook is dying and she is looking at getting a pc. Simply because mac cost too much for web and email.

We do love our iPhones though. They are an amazing value and I type this message on one!

So when apple starts making some cheaper computers and stops being greedy about super high margins, then more people will start buying them. They could get 30% marketshare overnight if they just came out with a laptop that was under $700.

Sorry. Apple will continue to own the Premium end of the market. Windows 7 has so far had no effect at all on Mac sales. The moment for MS is kinda lost. MS took the lowbrow route and completely cheapened their brand image. No class. And Apple's on track this quarter for another record in Mac sales. MS and the box assemblers are associated with the Bargain Bin. As long as MS doesn't control the entire widget and Apple stays on course, MS will stay locked out of the Premium end.

Apple's rise has meant more for the entire industry than any other tech event over the past decade. Apple leads the industry in innovation, design, customer satisfaction, you name it.

If the consumer has $1000+ to spend, they're likely going in for a Mac. That's today's reality. Blame it on Apple's business model. What wasn't managed well in the 90's has gone Platinum over the past ten years.

Apple is like The Canadian Olympic Team. Might not have the most medals, but they own the most Gold.

I find this kind of hard to believe. I think you are exaggerating here.

If all your daughter wants is "web and email" then the $499 iPad is the cheapest, and yet the most futuristic and cool product available for that.

If she actually needs more than just that, then the iPad is still a very good buy that will probably fill her requirements anyway. Even if it doesn't, the baseline MacBook is still the fastest machine she could buy for one of the lowest prices she could find anywhere (Mac or PC).

The only thing cheaper than a MacBook, is a netbook, but even then, you have to pay 600-800 bucks to get a netbook that will actually be useable and last longer than a month or so. It won't last a fraction of the time the MacBook will, it won't be even a quarter as fast, and it will only save you a couple of hundred up front. Money you will be paying next year when you get her another one, whereas if you buy the MacBook, it will still be around five years from now.

I also think that it makes no sense that you say you've been a Mac user for 20 years, but the *price* is getting you down currently. Macs have always been a bit more expensive than PC's and only recently have they got reasonable. If you were using a Mac 20 years ago, then you were using some of the most expensive computers that were ever made. the price differential used to be about 50% higher, now it's more like 5% or 10% and you think it's too expensive now?

I just don't find anything you are saying her makes much sense.

It all comes down to this: She's your daughter. Get her whatever she likes, what makes her happy. PC or Mac.

However ...

By the end of 2010, it's predicted that more people will be online and accessing the web through mobile devices, rather than through the desktop. And by the time either Snow Leopard or Windows 7 achieves full market penetration, iPhone OS will have already taken over the mobile space. The desktop space is not growing, it's being passed by with a whole new generation of devices. So Microsoft will end up cock of an empty roost.

Microsoft is no longer the leader. Get used to it.

They don't even have any product for the new mobile platform space yet with "Windows Phone 7 Series" not even shipping until the end of 2010. iPhone OS will be on 4.0 by then with a 4 year head start.

yes I know what a Mac is, I own four of them at the moment, but I don't think you do. The Mac is a personal computer, you are provided with the full power of OSX, the iPhone and iPod touch don't run OS X, they run the iPhone OS which is based on OS X technologies but more restricted in what you can do, big difference.


No, and I don't have either, and I am a lost to see why you think that would make a difference, my son has an iPod touch though.

iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, AppleTV, Macs and Xserves all run OS X. Only Macs run Mac OS X.

Available where?

Xserves run Max OS X server don't they??? And Apple refers to the OS on the iPhone and iPod Touch as iPhone OS, not OS X

It doesn't matter what marketing name you call it, it's still the same foundation OS. Jobs has stated this since 2007 when they introduced the iPhone. They took Mac OS X and made the AppleTV OS form it. They took Mac OS and made iPhone OS from it. The first name appended to it was OS X iPhone. The removing of the 'X' does mean that it's magically not based off of OS X. It's all under the OS X umbrella. It's really hard to tell your FUD agenda is here as it's hard to imagine that anyone could actually be as thick as you act. Why not do even one google search to see that iPhone OS was built from OS X.

Well the iPad has got a CPU; a GPU; RAM and a hard drive, and it runs on an operating system. In what sense is it not a computer?

That's right. In fact, nowadays the line between "mobile device" and "computer" is being blurred noticeably. Apple leads the way in this movement. Eventually Microsoft and the box-assemblers will catch on to this.

The iPhone and iPod Touch were the first steps in this direction. The iPad is a major leap in this direction. It's the new computing foundation. All the work we do on standard PCs and Macs (as we know them today) will be transitioned gradually to the iPad platform, and ostensibly, the same sort of evolution (which right now seems like a transformation) will happen industry-wide.

Right now, the iPad is perfectly fine as a complementary device. Mostly because we can't quite fit a 1GB videocard into an iPad, etc. But with advances in miniaturization and with apps and games being written for the iPad, the iPad platform will in time function as a replacement for larger computing/game devices. Convergence will succeed. The level of gaming tech we're seeing now in the App Store is nothing compared to what we'll see as the iPad software/hardware ecosystem evolves. The potential of this platform is insane.

Absolutely. You get it whereas jfanning clearly doesn't. The concept of 'The Computer' i.e. a box on a desk in a room is already outmoded. The migration from that 80s/90s model to the mobile i.e. laptop, has been under way for a decade or more. Now, as the tech allows, the migration from the mobile to the ultra-mobile is here, and as you correctly point out, the iPhone was at the vanguard. The iPad I suspect will become the defining device of this next wave.

foundation is the magic word, based on, not the same.

Again you point out what everyone else knows why you try to backpedal your way out of another losing argument. No one stated that Mac OS X was shoehorned into the iPhone or iPad, but they all based on OS X. Of course, you like to get hung up on terms while ignoring the facts. Note, Windows CE is not based on any desktop version of Windows. I'm sure you'll argue differently since both have the term Windows in them.

Where have I said it wasn't a computer, I said the Mac was a personal computer that is all.

Maybe you should sell a couple of those shares and get some reading lessons with them, you have once again proven you have no reading or comprehension skills, you try trouble understanding simple concepts, either that or you are really one eyed and are blinded by your Apple shares.

The iPhone does not run OS X, it runs the iPhone OS which was based on OS X, that is what I said originally, that is what I am saying now, the only one getting confused by names is you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Laporte

BTW, you don't have to care about him, but I think he's considered a big deal in the Mac community.

You try to sarcastic but it just comes off as lame. You have to have a valid point and be a better writer for it to work.

Why you think that Mac equates to 'X' is beyond me. All the devices spoken about are bases on OS X. Apple even referred to the iPhone OS with the 'X' you say can't possibly have been part of the name without also being a Mac. Of course, I am at fault for expecting a troll to do any research so here is proof from one of many places showing that even Apple acknowledged that the Mac OS was the base for creating the iPhone under the OS X umbrella. I even choose a picture so you don't have to strain your brain reading...

What's that in the background? Could that be OS X iPhone. Bu..bu..but how could that be when you claim that the 'X' can only be associated with Mac. But they've changed it! Surely it couldn't be to make an easier name to market so it must be because they removed all the 'X's from the code.