No Osborne Effect
I recently reported on Apple’s increase in market share, which has been qualified since then: Apple’s increase was 30%, not 50% (Apple increased sales by about 45% as the market as a whole saw an increase of 17%). Apple’s market share has increased from 3.3% to 4.3%. This may seem small, but even beyond the fact that many individual PC makers would like that kind of market share, the increase has significance.
This is particularly significant considering something that nobody seems to be mentioning now: just a few months ago, people were predicting the Mac’s doom because Jobs announced that Apple was switching to Intel one year later. The idea was that Jobs had gaffed into an Osborne Effect in that no one would want to buy Apple computers until the new model came out, thus sending Mac sales into the toilet. Obviously this didn’t happen–in fact, the opposite was the result.
Add to that the fact that Apple has now and has traditionally held the top spot in customer satisfaction, often scoring way higher than any other maker.
And now we’re getting Apple’s third new-product-fest in six weeks tomorrow, where new high-end Power Mac and Powerbook models are expected to be announced (the last ones before the Mactels come, according to Apple’s standard 9-month product cycle)–and there may be another “one more thing” surprise, as Apple has the biggest exhibitor’s space at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York. No one is sure what Apple is planning to release, though the venue suggests it may be a digital camera of some type (Apple not-so-successfully marketed a QuickTake camera years back), or perhaps new photo-editing software (biting the hand of Adobe which so well feeds the Mac?).
So many people have written Apple’s obituary so many times, so consistently over the years that it has become a bit of a running gag. Who’ll be next?
Perhaps their # of units sold went up due to the $500 mini mac. Yet their revenue did not go up 30%. In some cases, someone may have bought a $500 mini instead of a more expensive Mac; therefore, the # of units sold figure going up is sometimes a mixed blessing.
Very likely so, but profit margin for Apple is not something most Macophiles are interested in–most Mac users are interested in market share, as it represents interest in the Mac environment. Just like the fact that Mac market share as represented by % of sales is a lowball figure because Macs tend to last longer, therefore you don’t have to replace them as often. That lessens profit for Apple perhaps, but it also means more people are using Macs than is generally indicated by the numbers.