Premium-priced computer market dominated by Apple

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Macs made up a whopping 91 percent of the $1,000 and up computer market in June, up significantly from early 2008 when Apple's premium market share was 66 percent, according to new data released this week.



As first reported at Betanews, the latest sales figures from NPD Market Research show Apple with the lion's share of premium computer sales, and the Mac maker's commanding share only continues to grow. In May, Mac sales made up 88 percent of computers priced four figures.



The average computer sells for $701, but separating Windows PCs from Macs shows a huge disparity. While the average Windows machine in June sold for $515, the average Apple machine came in at $1,400.



In this economy, it's clear that price matters -- to an extent. This week, Apple reported a record third quarter, bolstered by new lower prices on its entire line of MacBooks. The company sold 2.6 million Macs during the quarter, ushering in its best-ever June quarter.



Apple sells only three products below $1,000: the 13-inch MacBook, and both versions of the Mac mini.



In June, Apple lowered the prices on its 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros by $300. It also created the 13-inch MacBook Pro for $1,199 -- a cost of $100 less than its non-Pro predecessor.



Even with its premium prices, Apple has managed to grow its market share of computers that cost $1,000 or more. This as Microsoft has taken aim at the company's prices, calling it the "Apple tax."



In terms of overall volume, Macs held an estimated 8.7 percent of the U.S. PC market through June. But according to research firm Gartner, Apple's share is growing, having grown 2.5 percent in the second quarter while the rest of the industry slid.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 84
    capnbobcapnbob Posts: 388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Macs made up a whopping 91 percent of the $1,000 and up computer market in June, up significantly from early 2008 when Apple's premium market share was 66 percent, according to new data released this week.

    .



    Apple is money Baby, money!



    Seriously, it says a lot about the market and Apple - are only Apple buyers prepared to spend more than $1000 now (given that it is almost impossible to buy an Apple for less than $1000)? Apple is much more price and feature competitive against high-end PCs in the "light as possible" and "fashion accessory" segments so it probably has those sewn up and won't compete below $1000 - this all makes sense.



    The key thing is can apple maintain its ASP and margins - from the earnings report, it seems they can do both...



    Oh... first!
  • Reply 2 of 84
    philbotphilbot Posts: 240member
    mainly due to the fact that Macs are too expensive.



    Lets have a $700 headless Mac to bridge the gap between the Mini and the Mac Pro.
  • Reply 3 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Capnbob View Post


    are only Apple buyers prepared to spend more than $1000 now (given that it is almost impossible to buy an Apple for less than $1000)?



    Only Apple buyers have to spend that much (if they want something other than a Mac mini, that is).
  • Reply 4 of 84
    slapppyslapppy Posts: 331member
    Anyone can afford a Mac. Hasn't anyone heard of the technique of saving up for what you want? If you can't afford it now, save till you can. Or buy refurbish at the Apple online store.
  • Reply 5 of 84
    Smart shoppers shop for value. Poor and stupid shoppers shop for price.



    Real life story from yesterday: I'm asked at work to make some amendments to a PDF document. Our corporate PC's come with Acrobat Reader only. My boss thinks I'll print the original, write the changes on the paper copy, scan it (essentially making photographs and saving them in PDF format) and send it to the people who need it. You do realize that my finished product is not longer a document -- you can't search the text (or copy, cut, paste, edit) since it is now merely part of a photograph.



    I quickly went back to my hotel and got my MacBook which comes with Preview FOR FREE. Preview lets you annotate and markup PDF documents, so I was able to do that and send the people a real PDF document with our proposed changes.



    The list price of the cheapest version of Adobe Acrobat is $299.



    Your PC may have had a better price on the day you bought it, but my Mac has given me superior value. If you continued to spend the money to bring your PC to be able to keep up with my Mac, you'd soon have spent way more than I did on day one.
  • Reply 6 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by philbot View Post


    mainly due to the fact that Macs are too expensive.



    It probably has more to do with the standard of higher end computers that the other manufacturers are offering at the moment. For anyone looking to spend a lot of cash on a computer right now, and feel like they're getting something decent for their money, Apple is the obvious front runner.
  • Reply 7 of 84
    dr millmossdr millmoss Posts: 5,403member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by FuturePastNow View Post


    Only Apple buyers have to spend that much (if they want something other than a Mac mini, that is).



    It's true but not true -- the new standard of debate!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by philbot View Post


    mainly due to the fact that Macs are too expensive.



    Which clearly isn't the case, or Apple would be having a hard time selling Macs, which obviously they are not.
  • Reply 8 of 84
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by slapppy View Post


    Anyone can afford a Mac. Hasn't anyone heard of the technique of saving up for what you want? If you can't afford it now, save till you can. Or buy refurbish at the Apple online store.



    Not everyone has the luxury of waiting until they can afford one. However at the same time, this is exactly what I do except for I plan ahead. If I know I'm gonna want/need a new Mac in the coming months I start saving.
  • Reply 9 of 84
    This sounds great, and it surely is, but how exactly is this measured. If I remember correctly, this is only for major retail stores and so-called "big boxes" like Best Buy, Walmart, etc, right? If that is the case, I'm don't believe these numbers are accurate. I'm sure Apple still has an enormous market share, but it can't be that big.



    The reason being most $1000+ PCs fall into three categories:



    1) Gaming PCs - most high-end gaming desktops/laptops are purchased built-to-order online from the likes of Dell, HP, Alienware, Falcon northwest, and other many other smaller botique vendors. These would not be included in the data.



    2) Ultraportable laptops - These would be laptops from Sony (TT, Z, etc) Panasonic (W5, T5, etc), Toshiba (various models), IBM (X300, X200, etc), Dell (adamo), etc. These are rarely sold at a retail electronics store.



    3) Workstation and workstation laptops - PCs like Dell's Precision line and similar are definitely not found in retail stores. They may also be discluded anyways as "business" computers, although many consumers buy them because of their quality/durability/performance.



    It would be interesting to see an analysis of these numbers..
  • Reply 10 of 84
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macFanDave View Post


    Smart shoppers shop for value. Poor and stupid shoppers shop for price.



    Real life story from yesterday: I'm asked at work to make some amendments to a PDF document. Our corporate PC's come with Acrobat Reader only. My boss thinks I'll print the original, write the changes on the paper copy, scan it (essentially making photographs and saving them in PDF format) and send it to the people who need it. You do realize that my finished product is not longer a document -- you can't search the text (or copy, cut, paste, edit) since it is now merely part of a photograph.



    I quickly went back to my hotel and got my MacBook which comes with Preview FOR FREE. Preview lets you annotate and markup PDF documents, so I was able to do that and send the people a real PDF document with our proposed changes.



    The list price of the cheapest version of Adobe Acrobat is $299.



    Your PC may have had a better price on the day you bought it, but my Mac has given me superior value. If you continued to spend the money to bring your PC to be able to keep up with my Mac, you'd soon have spent way more than I did on day one.



    Agreed! Some people though you just can't get that into their head. All they do is look at the price and the specs.
  • Reply 11 of 84
    chronsterchronster Posts: 1,894member
    ah the price for osx. It's no wonder they are posting profits seeing as how they are making a killing off their inflated pricing.



    But that's my opinion. I'll take a laptop with equal or better hardware specs running vista or xp for much less any day.
  • Reply 12 of 84
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    these figures seem out of this world

    i wonder if its a TYPO



    Apple keeps rolling on







    Next quarter MBP and IPHONE / IPOD/TOUCH numbers will astound the market...And all other apple devices still have strong sales.



    31.5 bn in the cash bank



    AND maybe a couple/three NEW product's like a tablet or a 120 g full screen wifi classic touch or even a ipod nano simple phone or even a a TRUE MEDIA HUB combination <<applemini/appleTV>>





    9



    remember when michele dell said apple was on its last legs

    may be the quote of the decade
  • Reply 13 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macxpress View Post


    Agreed! Some people though you just can't get that into their head. All they do is look at the price and the specs.



    Absolutely, Somehow the majority of Americans base "value" solely on price. E.g., a $16 blender from Walmart (lasts about a year) is a better value than a $60 Braun blender designed to last 7 years.



    The business model is, "make a crap product," sell it cheaply, advertise the hell out of it, make a quick buck and fill up the landfills. Think-McDonalds, Coke, Cereal companies, American Beer companies, GM, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Cold Play, the list goes on and on.



    Thank goodness for Apple, Toyota and Honda
  • Reply 14 of 84
    timontimon Posts: 152member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by philbot View Post


    mainly due to the fact that Macs are too expensive.



    Lets have a $700 headless Mac to bridge the gap between the Mini and the Mac Pro.



    Ok, so then what? Once you add a 24" display, keyboard and mouse your back up to $1,000 or more.
  • Reply 15 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macFanDave View Post


    Smart shoppers shop for value. Poor and stupid shoppers shop for price.



    Real life story from yesterday: I'm asked at work to make some amendments to a PDF document. Our corporate PC's come with Acrobat Reader only. My boss thinks I'll print the original, write the changes on the paper copy, scan it (essentially making photographs and saving them in PDF format) and send it to the people who need it. You do realize that my finished product is not longer a document -- you can't search the text (or copy, cut, paste, edit) since it is now merely part of a photograph.



    I quickly went back to my hotel and got my MacBook which comes with Preview FOR FREE. Preview lets you annotate and markup PDF documents, so I was able to do that and send the people a real PDF document with our proposed changes.



    The list price of the cheapest version of Adobe Acrobat is $299.



    Your PC may have had a better price on the day you bought it, but my Mac has given me superior value. If you continued to spend the money to bring your PC to be able to keep up with my Mac, you'd soon have spent way more than I did on day one.



    so you think that shopper who seek for price is stupid? what is it? this time, economy is big matter. everybody tries to save money no matter what. as a matter of fact, not all PC is cheaper or ugly, less specs. I have used mac and PC for more than 15 years. I know what I can get advantage from each. yeah, mac is still better computer. but it's not affordable for most people. if it is, why mac is only shared less than 9% in US or 4% in world market? here in US, $1000 sound cheaper. but when you go to other countries, $1000 is a lot of money for most people. plus, demand is still way lower than PC because windows OS is used in most big companies and government, most people for work. of course, you can run windows on mac. but that's only option. they want entire windows machines, not half booting mac piece of shit. by the way, I have Sony Vaio FW which I recently bought for work. it's very nice, attractive, reliable machine. you said adobe preview? well, that's the first time it comes free with mac. that's maybe adobe reader. Apple is not bundled major software if it is not made by Apple like iLife. so your information is wrong. my mac didn't come with preview. I don't know why you call it preview. plus, did I spend more money because I got PC? NO. actually you will spend more money for software if you are not depend on Apple software. there are few Apple software more than $300. if you need it, you should buy. also microsoft office you should buy if you need (photoshop, apeture, CAD, ans od on). unfortunately, overall cost after buying mac is way more than PC. just take a look at people who bought mac. they go to apple store or other electronic malls to buy more accessaries than PC users. actually they are willing to pay for. so which side more spending money, huh? I don't know where did you pick that wrong information up?
  • Reply 16 of 84
    wobegonwobegon Posts: 764member
    ...I have to think they have an even larger share of the premium laptop market, what with the desktop market being pretty over-saturated at this point and Apple sells more laptops than desktops.



    @winterspan,



    While you bring up some good points, I would wager premium PCs from Dell, Alienware, etc. aren't sold at retail in large numbers because they're only really popular with the hardcore Windows gamer niche.



    Macs, on the other hand, appeal to gamers, video and photography pros or 'prosumers', and well, most people who aren't cheapskates and have an eye for design. There are also many who are just frustrated by Windows, especially Vista.
  • Reply 17 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macxpress View Post


    Not everyone has the luxury of waiting until they can afford one



    Then they should buy a PC, and get on with it.
  • Reply 18 of 84
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macFanDave View Post


    Real life story from yesterday: I'm asked at work to make some amendments to a PDF document. Our corporate PC's come with Acrobat Reader only. My boss thinks I'll print the original, write the changes on the paper copy, scan it (essentially making photographs and saving them in PDF format) and send it to the people who need it. You do realize that my finished product is not longer a document -- you can't search the text (or copy, cut, paste, edit) since it is now merely part of a photograph.



    I quickly went back to my hotel and got my MacBook which comes with Preview FOR FREE. Preview lets you annotate and markup PDF documents, so I was able to do that and send the people a real PDF document with our proposed changes.



    The list price of the cheapest version of Adobe Acrobat is $299.



    Why didn't you use one of the free alternatives on Windows, such as OpenOffice? I would have saved you a trip back to your hotel...
  • Reply 19 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Timon View Post


    Ok, so then what? Once you add a 24" display, keyboard and mouse your back up to $1,000 or more.



    He may mean it to be directed at those users that already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse from a windows unit and you are just replacing the box with an Apple.



    But I see your point, too.



    I think Apple's approach is to keep everything simple. My iMac is a marvel of design, I have a wireless apple mouse, wireless apple keyboard and only the one cable (power) coming out of the back. Nothing else on my desk.



    When I go over to my friend's house and see the unsightly PC with cables and dust on and at the back of his desk, it really is ugly! IMHO
  • Reply 20 of 84
    cmf2cmf2 Posts: 1,427member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by chronster View Post


    ah the price for osx. It's no wonder they are posting profits seeing as how they are making a killing off their inflated pricing.



    But that's my opinion. I'll take a laptop with equal or better hardware specs running vista or xp for much less any day.



    I remember when I thought like that... As another poster mentioned, the added value a mac provides vastly outwieghs any difference in the initial prurchase price. I swear my blood pressure rises when I turn on my homebuilt PC running Windows 7. Why can't Windows have simple things like built in spell check, or allow for the scrolling of non-active windows?
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