Apple captures 7.4% of US PC market on 31% Mac sales growth

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  • Reply 21 of 46
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    How is Linux a "bag of hurt"?



    I run Ubuntu with a OS X theme in Fusion and my Mac friends do a double take.



    For a OS and the free OpenOffice suit, Flash for Linux, and of course Firefox, it's a very decent netbook OS.



    Better than Windows I would say, runs faster, no headaches and a lot of free software for Linux too.



    If Apple made a netbook...



    Linux is great. Until something stops working or has to be made to work.



    It's a bag of hurt for the Average User. Safer than Windows, though, but that isn't the problem.



    Ubuntu + wireless connections = bag of hurt. It's good because it's free and isn't Windows. But you can also *tell* that it's free.



    Even in its Android form, Google's "Linux" is proving more than a little problematic.
  • Reply 22 of 46
    mactelmactel Posts: 1,275member
    My experience with netbooks has been ok. It is good enough for just browsing. Anything beyond that is a pain.



    My Dell Mini feels as cheap as it was priced. Windows 7 barely can keep up on the system.



    It is a good thing I won the Mini since I would be mad if I actually paid money for it. For home the Mac is my platform of choice. My wife hogs the Mac since she tried the Mini and immediately put it down.
  • Reply 23 of 46
    I feel a teeny weenie itsy bitsy bit sorry for losers who buy windows junk. But at least they can

    put their savings toward the trailer payment.
  • Reply 24 of 46
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by davebarnes View Post


    We could measure:

    units

    revenue

    profits



    But, we can only publish units because the companies don't provide the other numbers.



    Units as a metric makes sense when all the units sell at the same price. Not much sense when the price is changing rapidly.



    Excellent observation.



    One could declare iPhone and iPod touch to be as "PC" as a netbook, which would completely distort the unit numbers. It would be interesting how the Apple Tablet will be classified when it is released. If it is classified as a "PC", Apple may show dramatic unit volume and market share increase in 2010 over 2009...
  • Reply 25 of 46
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by melgross View Post


    Actually, we do. There are leaks from unhappy vendors all the time. And now, MS has been forbidden to charge different vendors different prices because of the federal case they lost.



    Never seen one of these leaks myself, but okay. I believe Microsoft was still able to offer discounts for quantity after the antitrust case settlement, and I believe the settlement terms are now expired.



    Desire is so much more powerful as a motivating factor, compared to command. Microsoft is used to command. They really don't get desire. Some people assume I'm calling Microsoft stupid for not getting this, but I'm not -- it's burned into their corporate DNA.



    Yes, Microsoft did have one or more quarters of declining profits. Not sure which one either now, but I think it was more recent than 2008. Came as a big shockeroo to many. They're currently enjoying the rubber band effect from the climb out of the recession but that's not the same as turning the corner. They are in slow growth mode.
  • Reply 26 of 46
    vineavinea Posts: 5,585member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    How is Linux a "bag of hurt"?



    Whenever some brilliant person decides that breaking everyone's audio is a good idea (Pulse Audio fiasco).

    Whenever you update to a new release and discover you've just made your system unstable because of some oddball conflict or xconfig got borked.

    Whenever you use apt to download crap that doesn't really work but does magically hose up something else you needed.

    Whenever the distro decides that releasing with EXT4 as the default filesystem even though there are known data corruption issues with it 453579

    Whenever upgrading from Frumpy Gerbil to Uppity Zebra results in a blank screen at startup...see Fewt's missive on why Ubuntu sucks.



    http://www.fewt.com/2009/10/i-give-up.html



    Money quotes:



    "...Ubuntu sucks. Instead of moving forward with every release, they have the uncanny ability to take Linux back in time by piling code that doesn’t work on top of more code that doesn’t work until they have turned their OS into a garbage salad.”



    "Maybe the kernel team will actually learn how to write modules that work and don't duplicate code and functions like rfkill, and perhaps the xorg team will focus on real issues like making drivers that actually work rather than changing how you configure it 3 times in 3 releases. Oh wow cool, it goes from terminal to GUI in 1 second, too bad I can't suspend with composite mode on without the driver segfaulting. Who needs suspend anyway, not like its a useful feature and all on an ultraportable."



    “Maybe I should buy a copy of Windows 7, I hear that it actually works. How can we expect non-techical users to use this pile of garbage that is "Linux"?”



    He didn't. They moved to debian unstable. But he will move to OSX someday I think. Or go insane.



    His wit is dry and hilarious:



    http://www.fewt.com/2009/11/winkarmic-me.html



    Me, I dunno WTF happened but jaunty completely hosed my xconfigs. I just nuked the distro and removed all the dual boot cruft from my wife netbook. Someday I'll hackintosh it but for now XP is fine and maybe I'll upgrade to Win7.



    Every couple years I'll try a distro or two and then realize I've got far better things to do with my time.



    Quote:

    I run Ubuntu with a OS X theme in Fusion and my Mac friends do a double take.



    I'm sure you loved compiz too. Looking like OSX is not working like OSX.



    Quote:

    For a OS and the free OpenOffice suit, Flash for Linux, and of course Firefox, it's a very decent netbook OS.



    Yes, if you never update the thing, or try to figure out why some app foo doesn't want to work with this other app bar installed because of some foobar'd dependency issue or like tarding around with the flipping command line. Which I have in OSX and thankfully never use.



    For running just Firefox with Flash and OpenOffice and doing really basic stuff Android will be 10 orders of magnitude better than any normal linux distro (because Google doesn't typically suck).



    When they get around to a real netbook Android market it'll be a 100 orders of magnitude better than apt or synaptic or any other of broken in different ways package managers. WTF do we have so many anyway? You think we could just maybe have one that doesn't suck as opposed to all this "choice"?



    Quote:

    Better than Windows I would say, runs faster, no headaches and a lot of free software for Linux too.



    Right...let me fix that for you: "there's a lot of free software that kinda sorta works for Linux". Quality apps for Linux like...uh...lemme think about that and get back to you with an example. I'd have said Firefox except it's freaking slower on Linux than XP. I sure hope they fixed that but now I don't care. Maybe opera. Wow great.



    And Win7 or XP has far more USEFUL apps (many even free) even on a netbook. And I'd rather deal with the ofttimes brokeness of Hackintoshing than the epic fail that linux is on the desktop (net or otherwise). At least going into that I know the system isn't really supposed to work well.
  • Reply 27 of 46
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    Steve won't allow Netflix on the AppleTV, you can buy a Roku for $99 to do that, or if you have a PS3 you can get a free disk from Netflix to allow you to stream.











    Yea, I like Netflix too. Best deal for the most content anytime, stream or disks. (not all stream)



    I heard today that the Wii is going to support Netflix streaming too. It seems a little contradictory that Netflix is not allowed on AppleTV, if we are to believe that the iTunes store exists mainly in order to sell hardware. Keeping Netflix off the AppleTV only promotes low margin sales of content on iTunes, whereas adding Netflix to the AppleTV would promote high margin hardware sales.
  • Reply 28 of 46
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss View Post


    They're hurting, but I agree not due to netbooks, which add to their bottom line far more than they add to the OEM's bottom lines. If Microsoft is hurting, it's because they haven't got a compelling product lineup and don't seem to know how to create one.



    They never really did know they were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time with the right ripped of products.
  • Reply 29 of 46
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by vinea View Post




    For running just Firefox with Flash and OpenOffice and doing really basic stuff Android will be 10 orders of magnitude better than any normal linux distro (because Google doesn't typically suck).

    .



    I really believe that Google is the only hope for Linux.



    Make Google docs better, which people can use in their Chrome browser, and a Linux version of Picassa and that could satisfy many typical users.



    Like you said most users don't have the time and expertise to keep Linux distros working.
  • Reply 30 of 46
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by quinney View Post


    I heard today that the Wii is going to support Netflix streaming too. It seems a little contradictory that Netflix is not allowed on AppleTV, if we are to believe that the iTunes store exists mainly in order to sell hardware. Keeping Netflix off the AppleTV only promotes low margin sales of content on iTunes, whereas adding Netflix to the AppleTV would promote high margin hardware sales.



    That would be great! I use netflix from media center and love it. That would allow us to watch under the same account in the game room without having another windows box!
  • Reply 31 of 46
    str1f3str1f3 Posts: 573member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by res08hao View Post


    I feel a teeny weenie itsy bitsy bit sorry for losers who buy windows junk. But at least they can

    put their savings toward the trailer payment.



    That's not funny. Don't be a jerk and attack people because they don't have enough money.





    This report is nothing special. They've retained their position as fifth. They even used to be fourth. As someone has said, this tablet better be something special. During this period they have neglected Mac OSX and provided a mediocre upgrade in Snow Leopard.
  • Reply 32 of 46
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by str1f3 View Post


    That's not funny. Don't be a jerk and attack people because they don't have enough money.



    I agree.



    Quote:

    This report is nothing special. They've retained their position as fifth. They even used to be fourth. As someone has said, this tablet better be something special. During this period they have neglected Mac OSX and provided a mediocre upgrade in Snow Leopard.



    I don?t agree. There was a drop off updates for all software in Decemeber, but they are already releasing 10.6.3 Betas to SL which was just released 4.5 months ago.
  • Reply 33 of 46
  • Reply 34 of 46
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by str1f3 View Post




    This report is nothing special. They've retained their position as fifth. They even used to be fourth. As someone has said, this tablet better be something special. During this period they have neglected Mac OSX and provided a mediocre upgrade in Snow Leopard.



    Yet have been enjoying record Mac sales, quarter afer quarter, in a recession.



    Yes, the tablet had better be special, but Apple certainly has no worries when it comes to selling their computers.



    I do, however, worry for the other box-makers pushing netbooks. Not a healthy way to do business over the long-term. Vendors making damaging price cuts is not all that impressive, and a strategy that only results in an inflated and artificial picture of actual performance.



    Dell, Acer and HP are essentially in a race to the bottom, and have essentially had zero impact on Apple's ownership of the Premium end of the market.
  • Reply 35 of 46
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    Yet have been enjoying record Mac sales, quarter afer quarter, in a recession.



    You know all the Apple haters won?t see the growth outpacing the market or that they did it with an actual profit margin, they?ll only see the loss of 0.2% marketshare.
  • Reply 36 of 46
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTripper View Post


    How is Linux a "bag of hurt"?



    I run Ubuntu with a OS X theme in Fusion and my Mac friends do a double take.



    For a OS and the free OpenOffice suit, Flash for Linux, and of course Firefox, it's a very decent netbook OS.



    Better than Windows I would say, runs faster, no headaches and a lot of free software for Linux too.



    If Apple made a netbook...



    Honestly, could you really recommend any Linux distro to the average person?



    I can't. Despite the advances made in Linuxland, it's still too complex for the average person, who just wants to plug their stuff in, and get it to work.



    All too often you find yourself not only downloading a program, but then needing to find libraries to get it to run. Good luck to the average person! And where are they going to get these programs? Amazon? Best Buy? Apple?



    And when things don't work properly, whom do they contact?
  • Reply 37 of 46
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macshark View Post


    Excellent observation.



    One could declare iPhone and iPod touch to be as "PC" as a netbook, which would completely distort the unit numbers. It would be interesting how the Apple Tablet will be classified when it is released. If it is classified as a "PC", Apple may show dramatic unit volume and market share increase in 2010 over 2009...



    It would have to have the Mac OS, not the iPhone/touch version of it which isn't compatible with the computer programs.





    That's why it's listed with phone OS's.
  • Reply 38 of 46
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by str1f3 View Post


    That's not funny. Don't be a jerk and attack people because they don't have enough money.



    Ok, he was a jerk, and I sorta agree with you here.



    Quote:

    This report is nothing special. They've retained their position as fifth. They even used to be fourth. As someone has said, this tablet better be something special. During this period they have neglected Mac OSX and provided a mediocre upgrade in Snow Leopard.



    Here I don't agree with you. If you're talking bugs, then every OS has them. If you're talking that the OS upgrade itself is mediocre, well, then you don't understand what the upgrade is all about, though you must have read many articles about it from multiple sources, and haven't read any reviews.
  • Reply 39 of 46
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    Interesting, since Apple is selling more Macs than ever these days. Quarter after quarter, record Mac sales. Looks like netbook sales are just that much stronger across the board. I wonder how other vendors' sales of midrange/high end PCs fared against netbook offerings. I suspect not that well.



    I think we're more than ready for a REAL tablet/slate computing platform. Bring it on, Apple.





    Apple sells 90% of all $1000+ PCs sold in the US market. Apple's profit margin is 37%. No other PC manufacturer makes half that margin in the home PC market. No Netbook makes 1/5 of that profit margin.



    Netbook sales are a larger market because they are cheap. Netbook is a commodity item. The only way to sell Netbooks is on price and you better sell a lot to spread the cost around in the hopes of turning a profit. This is always a race to the bottom as manufacturers all need to pump out hundreds of thousands in order to reach their nut and take advantage of economies of scale.



    As an investor would you like to put your money in a bank that returns 3% interest or a bank that pays 37% interest? Apple dominates the PC market. Their stock is at record highs, their market value is massive compared to PC counterparts, and they have a history of continually leading innovation and revolutionizing markets.
  • Reply 40 of 46
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by str1f3 View Post


    This report is nothing special. They've retained their position as fifth. They even used to be fourth.



    Rank is a totally meaningless statistic. Even market share is not very meaningful. In a business, the only thing that is really meaningful is growing profit.
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