Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 24th Feb 2009 13:42 UTC
Whenever we're talking market share and Macs, it'll inevitably get late. There are different means of measuring market share, and different ways to interpret the resulting data, usually leading to heated debates about who is right and who isn't. Ars decided to take a look at the different methods of measurement and see what they mean.
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RE: Unit sales or mind share?
by elsewhere on Wed 25th Feb 2009 05:06
in reply to "Unit sales or mind share?"
Member since:2005-07-13
For those who don't know what the hell I'm talking about let me put it this way. If a business buys 1000 computers that decision is generally made by a small group of people, so even though the unit sales is 1000 the mind share for the purchase may have been say five. Apple's increased mind share, which has lead to the increase in retail market share, has come about because of their success with iPod and iPhone products, and lead to many retail purchasers buying a Mac for the first time.
You're overlooking the fact that the small group of people making the decision for business purchasing is most likely made on ROI considerations, at least for companies where purchasing impacts 1,000 seats. Consumer mindshare honestly does not play into these types of scenarios, at least not in a significant way.
As more services move to the interwebs platform will become increasingly irrelevant and with both static and mobile platforms using the exact same browser engine and interface Apple is also in a good position to capitalise in this growing market, especially in situations where those making the business purchase decisions are the same people who have switched to Apple gear at home.
To my point above, if organizations are moving to the interweb as a platform for delivery, why would they utilize a more-expensive proprietary platform for deploying a web-browser?
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Member since:
2006-04-03
Unit sales do give an indication of current market share, and as Thom rightly points out these figures generally don't account for business sales. However a more important figure for future projections for any company is mind share, and it is here that I believe Apple have made some fairly major inroads.
For those who don't know what the hell I'm talking about let me put it this way. If a business buys 1000 computers that decision is generally made by a small group of people, so even though the unit sales is 1000 the mind share for the purchase may have been say five. Apple's increased mind share, which has lead to the increase in retail market share, has come about because of their success with iPod and iPhone products, and lead to many retail purchasers buying a Mac for the first time.
As more services move to the interwebs platform will become increasingly irrelevant and with both static and mobile platforms using the exact same browser engine and interface Apple is also in a good position to capitalise in this growing market, especially in situations where those making the business purchase decisions are the same people who have switched to Apple gear at home.
The whole Pystar case is to a large degree moot in all of this. Techy geeky types and their immediate family and friends will know of companies like Pystar, but the majority won't, and I personally believe if Apple lose the Pystar case they will just change the distribution model for OSX to be more akin to Microsoft's which will either send Pystar into oblivion or generate more revenue for Apple anyway.
So I honestly don't see Apple losing in all of this, I may be wrong and I'm sure Windows fanboys like Thom are hoping I am. Apple has shown an incredible resilience over the years and I don't see that changing any time soon. The ride will be an interesting one...