Apple snatches 14 percent of May notebook sales
An overhaul to Apple's consumer-level portables is partly credited for pushing Apple's share of the American market in May to new heights, according to a new NPD report.
The Mac maker climbed almost two full percentage points in mid-spring, securing 14.3 percent of all notebook sales in the U.S. versus 12.5 percent in April. The spike represented a 14 percent step up compared to the earlier period and lifts Apple to fourth place in the notebook sphere, putting it just behind HP, Gateway, and Toshiba.
The jump also represents a significant upward trend in the company's notebook share over the course of the spring quarter as a whole. Apple reached 9.9 percent in March, also claiming fourth place at the time. A mid-May update to the 13.3-inch MacBook is largely credited for the sharp uptick, as buyers waiting for an update were finally satisfied with new models.
And in fulfilling that need, the Cupertino-based firm also continued its trend of outrunning Windows manufacturers, NPD says. While the rival producers expanded sales by 37 percent compared to the same four-week period in 2006, MacBooks surged by 65 percent year over year -- almost double the industry rate.
Desktop share was virtually flat, however. Apple's portion of the retail business grew only slightly from 10.2 percent in April to 10.4 percent last month. The sluggish response is said to reflect an overall downturn in desktop sales which Apple has been unable to escape. The computer designer is known to be waiting on an upcoming iMac redesign for the summer.
Sales purely in the retail space were kinder to Apple's desktops, NPD says. The combined sales of iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Pros climbed in May from 8.6 to 9.1 percent, while the more impressive notebook gain was reflected in a surge from 10.1 percent to 11.5 percent during the timeframe.
Combined share for notebooks and desktops was 13 percent, the analyst group says, marking a material increase from 11.6 percent in April.
The Mac maker climbed almost two full percentage points in mid-spring, securing 14.3 percent of all notebook sales in the U.S. versus 12.5 percent in April. The spike represented a 14 percent step up compared to the earlier period and lifts Apple to fourth place in the notebook sphere, putting it just behind HP, Gateway, and Toshiba.
The jump also represents a significant upward trend in the company's notebook share over the course of the spring quarter as a whole. Apple reached 9.9 percent in March, also claiming fourth place at the time. A mid-May update to the 13.3-inch MacBook is largely credited for the sharp uptick, as buyers waiting for an update were finally satisfied with new models.
And in fulfilling that need, the Cupertino-based firm also continued its trend of outrunning Windows manufacturers, NPD says. While the rival producers expanded sales by 37 percent compared to the same four-week period in 2006, MacBooks surged by 65 percent year over year -- almost double the industry rate.
Desktop share was virtually flat, however. Apple's portion of the retail business grew only slightly from 10.2 percent in April to 10.4 percent last month. The sluggish response is said to reflect an overall downturn in desktop sales which Apple has been unable to escape. The computer designer is known to be waiting on an upcoming iMac redesign for the summer.
Sales purely in the retail space were kinder to Apple's desktops, NPD says. The combined sales of iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Pros climbed in May from 8.6 to 9.1 percent, while the more impressive notebook gain was reflected in a surge from 10.1 percent to 11.5 percent during the timeframe.
Combined share for notebooks and desktops was 13 percent, the analyst group says, marking a material increase from 11.6 percent in April.
Comments
And yeah, the stats underscore the fact that the desktop lineup still needs help. Redesigned iMacs can't come too soon. And they should still do a minitower.
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Apple will have 10% of the total US market (laptops & desktops) by 2010.
I think 15. Optimistic, yes, but the growth rates are good and should continue to increase.
According to the article, they've already passed that.
because the article is misleading.
Apple will have 10% of the total US market (laptops & desktops) by 2010.
According to the article, they've already passed that.
Combined share for notebooks and desktops was 13 percent, the analyst group says, marking a material increase from 11.6 percent in April.
This number could be higher if they had any machines to sell. Oregon stores have been out of the 2.2Ghz 15.4" MBP units for a week now, and the salespeople are starting to sound really annoyed when I call them up each day and ask if they got any in. If they really didn't want me (and others) to bother them, they could just create a waiting list (but apparently that is against store policy or something).
Why not just order direct from apple?
It may only include retail sales, but its still a very good indicator isn't it?
Seems it is an important contribution since Dell is now looking for retail sales through Wal-mart.
Market share is growing, but there sure are a lot of odd metrics to make it sound bigger than it is. I'm just waiting for them to hit 3M units per quarter...
Why not just order direct from apple?
Originally it was to avoid sales tax, but the stores have been so frustrating in terms of customer service, somewhat before I had decided to buy and now extremely since I have started trying to give them money, that I think I'm now doing it just to see if they will ever redeem themselves. Each new employee I talk to comes up with another store policy that flies in the face of traditional sales logic; it might just be the least helpful store I have ever dealt with, and it is sort of like watching a train wreck (which for some reason I find fascinating).
The other day they actually told me over the phone that they had some units, and then verified that they had several. I asked to reserve one, and was told that that was impossible. When I got to the store, there were none, the sales people said there had not been any for several days, and it was store policy to allow people to put them on reserve. The person also said they would not have any for the next two days for sure, as they could check shipments two days out; on two earlier occasions I had been told that they had no ability to track any incoming shipments.
I have accumulated enough "right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing" stories about Apple retail stores in the last week... I know the web is always an option, but for some crazy reason I now need to see the storefront work like it is supposed to. It's not about the money anymore, I just want to know that I can still get things in person.
It makes it sound like 'volume' share, but a closer reading seems to make it sound as though it's all about 'value' share.
The latter is still good. However, it would be nice to see Macs get both volume and value share gains.
According to the article, they've already passed that.
The way I read it, they sold 14% of the total notebooks in May and that wasn't their current marketshare which is around 5 or 6% i believe.
It makes it sound like 'volume' share, but a closer reading seems to make it sound as though it's all about 'value' share. […] However, it would be nice to see Macs get both volume and value share gains.
It seems to me like it's about volume share (units, not value). And the Mac average selling price is higher than the average for all PC manufacturers, the Mac gets both volume and value share gains.
It may only include retail sales, but its still a very good indicator isn't it?
Retail sales only account for a fraction of PC sales but it's a good indicator of sales to consumers in the U.S. The issues become a bit blurred because Dell is selling directly to customers and NPD's figures do not include direct sales. On the other hand, the consumer segment only accounts for about 10 to 15 percent of Dell's overall business, as explained in this article. Dell is about to change its strategy and mix retail and direct sales to improve its share in the consumer segment, but it won't happen overnight.
NPD numbers usually include retail sales (not online, nor direct sales) in the United States but this time even after reading InformationWeek and Computerworld, it's still unclear what it's about.
Computerworld: "NPD collects its sales data primarily from retail point-of-sale sources, and excludes most online and all direct sales."
"Collects primarily" but not strictly? And "excludes most" but not all, which ones are included? WTF?
Quick summary: NPD numbers, U.S. market only.
Overall Mac share online and through brick-and-mortar stores
11.6 percent in April, 13 percent in May
Overall Mac share in brick-and-mortar stores alone
9.6 percent in April, 10.8 percent in May
Mac notebook share online and through brick-and-mortar stores
12.5 percent in April, 14.3 percent in May
Mac notebook share in brick-and-mortar stores alone
10.1 percent in April, 11.5 percent in May
Mac desktop share online and through brick-and-mortar stores
10.2 percent in April, 10.4 percent in May
Mac desktop share in brick-and-mortar stores alone
8.6 percent in April, 9.1 percent in May
The jump [to 14.3 percent] also represents a significant upward trend in the company's notebook share over the course of the spring quarter as a whole. Apple reached 9.9 percent in March, also claiming fourth place at the time.
In retail-only Apple's U.S. notebook share reached 9.9 percent in March and 11.5 percent in May. The jump is from 9.9 to 11.5 percent.
Computerworld says that "Apple Inc. got help from the update to its MacBook laptops to push its share of the laptop market in the U.S. up nearly two points in May, to 14.3%" The jump to 14.3 percent is from 12.5 percent in April. Online and through brick-and-mortar stores, not retail-only.
The way I read it, they sold 14% of the total notebooks in May and that wasn't their current marketshare which is around 5 or 6% i believe.
According to Gartner Apple had a 5 percent U.S. market share in January-to-March 2007. Desktops, notebooks and X86 servers sold to consumers, enterprises, or whoever, in retail stores and through direct sales, the whole shebang.
And then there is that point in time when Apple acceptance reaches the tipping point. When all the windows users who continue to be windows users just because they have to justify their original decisions to buy into the platform come around and give in to buying a Mac. Watch out! There will be a tipping point, hopefully coming soon. Maybe the iPhone will convince people to give Apple computers a second look.
Sorry for injecting an iPhone reference. It seemed relevent. And after all this is officially the last week...
Really, I think there are a lot of people who want to get macs and talk to one of their friends who is a mac user about getting a mac, and are about to get a mac, but at the exact time they get around to getting a new computer, there isn't any mac person around to help them get a mac so they just go with a PC. I think a lot of peoples computer decisions are decided by someone they know who is knowledgeable about computers. This means that every new person that gets a mac is another person that would encourage one of their friends to get a mac.
Hey, why are we quibbling? Double digit Apple market share in any category is a reason to party.
Well, not really. I agree with you that there is a "tipping point", but whilst these figures make it seem like that tipping point is nearly upon us, Apple's actual share of the U.S. market is still only around 5%.
Whilst AI have stated that the data is for "all" laptops, it isn't. It is retail-only, and only a small fraction of computer sales are made at retail.
Desktop share was virtually flat, however. Apple's portion of the retail business grew only slightly from 10.2 percent in April to 10.4 percent last month. The sluggish response is said to reflect an overall downturn in desktop sales which Apple has been unable to escape.
That is flawed logic. The shrinking of the market as a whole should have no effect on whether or not Apple is able to increase its share of that market. The laptop numbers make it clear that if Apple builds laptops that people want, people will buy them, leading to double-digit growth in laptop market share. So why doesn't Apple start making real desktops and see the same thing happen to their desktop market share?
That is flawed logic. The shrinking of the market as a whole should have no effect on whether or not Apple is able to increase its share of that market. The laptop numbers make it clear that if Apple builds laptops that people want, people will buy them, leading to double-digit growth in laptop market share. So why doesn't Apple start making real desktops and see the same thing happen to their desktop market share?
Huh?
Desktop sales are a shrinking/flat market across the whole industry. What makes you think Apple can buck that trend?