Forget iPhones and iPods, the Mac is where it is at

did i read it right ......apple has 15% market share ?

leftnotracks; market share and installed base are two different things. Market share IS worth measuring, because that works into how much money Apple makes on the platform.

As for installed base, I am very skeptical about your claims that there's this huge hidden installed base of Macs. A lot of browser hit stats for web sites often show the browser, OS and architecture for things like . I've never seen any numbers that suggest that there's hidden web useage. Shiira doesn't show up at all. Camino makes up 0.1% of my hits. Firefox is broken down by OS and architecture. They just don't add up to much.

I think that it was the Mac vs PC commercials that really made people think about their computers. The new iMac ad is less Mac vs PC, and more "Holy shit, look how awesome this looks" (unfortunately, it doesn't talk about the power of the iMac surpassing that of many other desktops on the market).
Still, Apple is growing more and more competitive, and more people are considering it a possibility when buying a computer. They do the research, including Macs, and choose the best one, which, more often than not, is a Mac.

For me, I bought my first MacBook back in Nov. because I was very impressed with my 8GB iPod Nano, and I was so disgusted with the Vista Beta OS I was using (another story altogether). I love my MacBook, and I've bought the AirPort Extreme wireless router (which kicks a**!) and an 80GB video iPod since, while contemplating getting one of the new iMacs later in the year.

So you can count me as one of those buyers introduced to other Apple products via the "halo" effect.

@Mitch

Uh, what he said.

(And I still, still do not know why this blog and all other blogs that us that use the same software cannot remember my password)

It's true, I'm finding more and more Mac users where I don't expect them. It's fun to unexpectedly be in a room where everyone takes their computers out and more than half of them are Macs.

I think the low market share for mac browsers is a myth. Most of those numbers are based on unit sales, not installed base or how the computers are used because that is hard to measure. Too bad, because it is the only thing worth measuring.

Macs have a longer useful life than PCs. Many people upgrade PCs faster than macs. When they do upgrade, the older mac is still used because it is easily networked and set up, or given to mom. My 9-year-old G3 runs iCab fine.

More macs are on-line than PCs because of their ease of set-up. The average Mac costs more than the average PC, so the average Mac user is more affluent than the average PC user. That affluence means a greater chance on being on-line and a greater chance of a broadband connection.

Macs are popular for home-office use, so they're not only the computer one uses at home, but the work computer, too. While this would apply to any home-office computer, Mac or PC, Macs have a greater chance than PCs.

The average Mac user is more web-savvy than the average PC user. This is partly due to the ease of use of the computer (easier to install software and easier to use it), but also because with a higher financial commitment comes a higher a greater commitment to using and optimizing the computer. We are also more likely to work in the development and creative fields, so we're more likely to use different browsers and web-development programs.

Maybe someone else has pointed this out, but I have just figured out what is really annoying me about the new iMac.

That black border around the screen makes the iMac look like it has a black eye. What an UNattractive addition.

"OK, who punched Apple in the 'i'?"

I agree with Macs being similarly priced. Where I work (which is all Dell), I am programming/maintaining a Access database. Other than that I need nothing that involves PCs. I am giving my newer machine to another employee (who's machine is pretty old), giving my two 19" LCDs to other people who have small old screens, and ordering a 24" iMac. I can use VMWare to run Access, and my email, web browsing, etc will be done in OSX. I will eventually be doing web design (and converting Access to a SQL based program)for us, so I figured since it is so close in price (and looks great), why not have the choice of Windows or OSX. If for some reason VMWare is not working, I can reboot directly into Windows. I am going to even look into developing a OSX version of the software, because both Mac/PC can tap a SQL database.

I am going to love having this choice. Since the price is so close (within the price of Windows), and I get developer's copies of MS OSes, I won't have to pay extra for the Windows function. It just seems like a WIN/WIN situation. NOW, granted if this was a few years ago and Virtual PC was the only way, I would not have even considered this. What is great is my mess of wires (dual monitors, power, ethernet, keyboard mouse) will go down to power and ethernet. :)

I agree with the article. I have a new imac.

My cap "z" key does not work...does yours?