Maybe Apple's Switch campaign is working after all.

placebo · July 17, 2003 8:52AM

Apple reported their quarterly results yesterday, and noted that half of all mac sales were to people that did not own macs, thus Switchers. Many users on this forum say that Apple is doing badly Switching PC users, but this, in my opinion, proves that Apple is in fact doing pretty well.

kraig911 · July 17, 2003 9:46AM

I too have heard honest statements from people looking into switching and believing that a lot of people are as well.

madmax559 · July 17, 2003 9:56AM

the ads work ...but the 1/2 assed support & the arrogant

jackasses at the apple stores (some not all)

pretty much kill any enthusiasm a person may have when

looking at apple products

hmurchison · July 17, 2003 10:08AM

Apple just needs to grow some balls and create nice consumer lineup. They've always had issues with this(ie Performas). You don't have to cripple products in the hopes that people will buy another machine from you as a way to increase future sales.

inactionman · July 17, 2003 1:19PM

I don't know if it makes much difference, but the I believe the statement was that half of all sales IN Apple stores were from non-mac users, not half of all sales.

And is the sales staff at Apple stores are anything like the staff at Apple resellers in Toronto (I'm thinking CSC at College and Spadina) then Apple needs to do a bit of "re-education" on their snooty asses.

If I were a potential switcher and some Apple rep gave me that "and what makes you think you're worthy of a mac" look I'd walk the fruck out and buy a Dell.

matsu · July 17, 2003 1:57PM

Unless you see the market share increase, or at least a volume sales increase from this year over the last, you cannot say that the switch campaign is working. Or it's working both ways, new customers are switching in, and old ones are switching out of the fold, so your gains are negated.

Things to worry about, lost education sales. Apple's drop off in edu has been staggering (as a percentage of marketshare)

Macs at school lead to a greater chance of macs at home. 5 years ago, I looked at a university an saw pretty much 50-50 Mac/PC split. The Edu faculty was exclusively mac based. Last year a new lab went in a new building. 300 PC's 60 eMacs. The edu faculty is now exclusively PC.

It's still more macs than you see in the day to day, but it's fallen from 1 in 2 to 1 in 10, and in elementary/high schools, with even less money, the drop off is even more profound. This will be paid over the next 3-10 years when students graduate NEVER having touched or seen a mac AT ALL, and have even less reason to wander over to the switchers side.

buonrotto · July 17, 2003 2:14PM

Well, we have seen growth in the US consumer market. Apple just tossed out number that they're somewhere between 5% and 10% in the home market, up from 3%. It's primarily the education market that's been hurting their marketshare, aside form the usual lack of Macs in business/enterprise.

Try to have a little confidence, Matsu!

seb · July 17, 2003 2:55PM

And NYU Medical just went all Macs - ok, a few PCs here and there. They'll be done putting em in later this year, from what I hear.

They were discussing it a while back:

http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/student-...s/m011403.html

so that negates what happened at Matsu's Uni. sorta, depending on the relative cpu numbers of each school and all that.

just some more, worthless, anecdotal evidence.

edit: added link

soberbrain · July 17, 2003 2:59PM

personally, i know the switch campaign is working because i'm going to be buying my first mac soon and my girlfriend's next computer will most likely be a mac (especially after she sees mine

) this is definitely a turning point for Apple and mac fans. people are becoming less ignorant about the mac and actually discovering what all the fuss is about. also, people are realizing that they have a choice in what computer they use and how they want their digital lifestyle to be.

until the rise of MacOS X, iLife and recent hardware it's always bothered me that Apple didn't utilize one of their greatest advantages over PC's - seamless integration. a reason why PC's are so hard to use is because they are frequently incompatible with their own software and peripherals. Apple finally took advantage of the fact that they make their own hardware and os.

the reason i am switching to a mac now and not in the past is because i can accomplish more and with less frustration. the mac is becoming an extension of myself instead of a separate tool that i have to fight with.

delphiki · July 17, 2003 3:23PM

Is it necessarily the switch campaign or just an improved Mac experience? I might not be typical, but I'm almost certainly buying my first Mac soon, because I like OS X a lot and like iTunes, iMovie, and I'm a Linux geek right now (formerly Windows geek) and think the combination of Unix and great hardware integration and a great UI is very attractive. But honestly, I'd worked on OS 8-9 Macs full time at a few times doing graphics stuff, and used to argue with people about why Macs sucked - I might not be as against them as I was, but I still wouldn't even consider buying a Mac if not for OS X. Of course, like I said, I'm hardly typical - learning curves and compatibility issues and a lot of the things Macs are typically praised for are non-issues for me, being the geek that I am :P

sport73 · July 17, 2003 3:50PM

Excellent points Soberbrain...

I just bought a 17" iMac, and coached a friend into buying the same...

Long time Mac loyalists trash the iMac, and Apple's strategy, but from where I'm sitting, it's working...

High-priced? Sure...But after 3 weeks of constant use it dawned on me that I hadn't had to reboot my iMac once...that everything I did worked exactly as I expected...that I looked forward to settling down in front of that beautfil machine; looking for music in iTunes MS, managing my iPod, making movies and burning DVD's...Everything is better with a Mac. I don't care if you've got an e-Mac or a G5, the machines (OSX) just flat out work...

To the long-time loyalists...This is your reward. It may never be demonstrated in marketshare, but the Apple cult is growing. Savor the fact that you were here when...

I'm going to continue to do my part by converting friends and family...I suggest many of you stop bitching and get out there and do the same!

macsrgood4u · July 17, 2003 3:59PM

Apple reported similar figures on visitor percentages to the stores last quarter. This is not new. What is new is that the iPod and iTunes are accelerating visitations somewhat. Today, Wall Street took note and Apple closed at a 52 week high of $20.90 up $1.03. While the CPU business remains relatively flat - for Apple and the entire industry, digital devices continue to lead the way. Here's hoping Apple has another such device in the works. Apple entered the MP3 market when it was relatively young and now leads the way. A PDA would not do it as that segment is very mature and there's little room for more product. It has to be something else. Apple has said no to a tablet. Perhaps they'll come out with a capsule?

defiant · July 17, 2003 4:02PM

reinstating InactionMan

ahem:

wrong:

Quote:

half of all mac sales were to people that did not own a mac

correct:

Quote:

According to Anderson, fifty percent of computer buyers at Apple?s stores did not currently own a Mac

http://www.macnn.com/feature.php?id=382

http://www.macminute.com/2003/07/16/conferencecall

read. think. write.

chu_bakka · July 17, 2003 4:39PM

Once again the latest marketshare numbers...

"Apple's slice of the overall U.S. PC market shrank to 2.9% in the first quarter, down from 3.2% two years earlier, says market tracker International Data Corp. But Apple has gained in consumer PC sales, especially with notebook computers. Apple's share of U.S. consumer PC unit sales rose to 3.4% in the first quarter, up from 1.9% two years earlier. Its share of dollars spent on consumer PCs rose from 2.3% to 5.2%."

SO can we stop saying that Apple's market share is below 2%?

The G5 WILL make a big difference in their sales this year. I think the marketshare slide will change direction. The Pro market has been suffering... pros have been waiting for the G5.

macsrgood4u · July 17, 2003 4:56PM

Fred Anderson said yesteday that the G5 will never reach the levels of 400,000 per year as in the good old days. He felt a yearly 200,000 would be great. Apple now sells more laptops. He said, laptops are taking over desktops in many situations and inferred that the 17" Powerbook was a good example. One thing about the G5 is that it is more profitable then the portables. It should add nicely to the bottom line but not to marketshare. Suprisingly yesterday, and this seemed to slip by, Apple annouced an 5% increase in education sales. Anderson also said they had made some deals with other school districts for iBooks but had not announced them as yet.

amorph · July 17, 2003 5:02PM

I noted that Fred Anderson was "pleased" with Apple's performance in education this last quarter. They posted a gain. I remember hearing 5%, which is nothing drastic, but it's movement in the right direction. (And 5% of the education market is a lot of CPUs.)

If they can keep hammering away at Dell's intrusion onto their old turf, and if the G5 and the point update to Quark 6 which finally makes it stable and the professional advocacy group recently established within Apple all contribute to a revived professional market, Apple can start making headway in overall market share. It's heartening to see the above consumer market share numbers, and also the nearly 6% market share in portables.

The skyrocketing iPod sales can't hurt, either. If the iTMS can literally quintuple iPod sales given its limited market, what will happen when it's rolled out for Windows?

But, of course, the over 300,000 iPods moved this last quarter didn't count toward Apple's market share...

mrmister · July 17, 2003 5:03PM

Things could be stronger, but I'm happy with the trends as they now stand--I think Apple's done a hell of a job at turning things around and staunching the bleeding.

matsu · July 17, 2003 5:56PM

Quote:

Originally posted by seb

And NYU Medical just went all Macs - ok, a few PCs here and there. They'll be done putting em in later this year, from what I hear.

They were discussing it a while back:

http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/student-...s/m011403.html

so that negates what happened at Matsu's Uni. sorta, depending on the relative cpu numbers of each school and all that.

just some more, worthless, anecdotal evidence.

edit: added link

Fine,

How about 2 universities (with over 100 000 students between them) and 4 Toronto Area school boards covering about, say 3 million residents?

See, and I am actually in a position to check this stuff out, and I can find out exactly how many macs schools aren't buying with just an e-mail.

It's sad actually, the state of tech in schools, and there is movement to make even K-6 "M$ only" because that's better for the "work-force" if you can believe that. To me that's a better argument NOT to have M$ in the classroom, but that's besides the point. With the prices such as they are, an number of cockeyed justifications will pass as reason enough to get rid of macs and put in cheaper PC's, this besides union issues that make an iron clad guarantee that teachers and board techs NEVER fall on the same side of the computer issue.

matsu · July 17, 2003 5:57PM

And we can't really stop saying that Apple's market share is below 2% untill we see global numbers, then we can talk about their market-share.

placebo · July 17, 2003 7:21PM

How the heck does the Applestore staff know whether I'm a PC or Mac user when I walk through their door? I mean, after a couple minutes in the store, it's painfully obvious that I use Macs, but...8)

chu_bakka · July 18, 2003 10:13AM

http://idc.com/getdoc.jhtml?containe...3_07_16_180525

Apple is the 7th largest computer maker in the US. (in terms of sales.)

Maybe Apple's Switch campaign is working after all.

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