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Apple To Ship 2.5 Million Macs Thanks to Vista?

by Chris Ullrich Jul 8th 2008 at 5:00PM

With all the current hype surrounding the imminent release of both the upgrade to Apple's .Mac service, now to be forever known as MobileMe, and Friday's launch of the new, improved iPhone version 2.0, let's not forget that Apple also makes other types of hardware that seems to be selling pretty well these days. In fact, according to a recent article up over at AppleInsider, Apple is apparently poised to ship 2.5 Million Macs in the Spring -- thanks, in some measure, to the poor reception of Microsoft's Windows Vista.

According to BMO Capital Markets analyst Keith Bachman, Apple's potentially strong quarter, which ends in June, can be attributed to several factors. Among them, user dissatisfaction with Vista. "Thus far, user satisfaction ratings for Vista have been weak, and startup times for Vista have been known to be much slower than the Mac OS X," Bachman said in the article. "Thus, more than 50% of recent customers buying Macs in Apple retail stores are first-time buyers."

In addition, the analyst added that this problem could help Apple's bottom line well into 2009 and could potentially improve the company's current world market share, raising it to 3.9% or higher. This is good news for those of us who remember the time, not so long ago, when most in the press and analysts like Bachman predicted Apple's certain demise. Still, even with this good news, we still need to hope Apple doesn't do something to hurt itself -- like bungle the .Mac to MobileMe transition or run out of shiny new iPhones at 8:30AM on Friday. That would not be a good thing.


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With all the current hype surrounding the imminent release of both the upgrade to Apple's .Mac service, now to be forever known as...
 

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Raj

I think claiming Apple products are only increasingly more popular because of their "trendiness" is a mistake. I think the trendiness factor has a bit of effect in getting them stage-time, but I think what happens *during* that stage-time for PC users is what ultimately sells the machines.

July 09 2008 at 8:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mlovely

Well i dont think vista is the reason or all of it, it could be due to the Virtualization Company parallels and apples bootcamp allowing users to use both OSX and Windows on the machine that is helping sales so much....

July 09 2008 at 2:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ellis Baxter

In trend terms the geeks have held the court with PC and way too many of us found that the I-Pod and I tunes are the only things working all the time on the PC. So you go to the apple shop and find that you can use one and you do not need a on site geek because they work. The trend then is this it will grow and sooner or later mac will pass Pc because we will be using something different. I hate MS and I hate these PCs when times get better these three go and four new macs arrive. I can not wait.

eb

July 09 2008 at 12:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
katnap

I bought a MacBook Pro the other week for three main reasons, none of which had to do with security, bugs, or interface:

1. I can install Windows on to it if I need to run a particular application
2. It came with a free iPod, which is ideal for listening to lectures again
3. The HP computer I had before was not well built, and the MacBook seems like a more solid piece of engineering
4. The MAC products are nicely designed, and they look more attractive than my clunky HP.

Kat.

July 09 2008 at 11:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Diem

Agreed that some parts of Windows sucks (coming from a dual-user), but to correct a blatant untruth.
#5 states lack of safety, which is the opposite of the problem with Vista. The problem is the overworrying and hand holding over safety. Too many pop ups! I've had no problems with Windows Defender.

Something I've been chewing on... If market share increased to 15-20%, would the feeling of being an "apple user" change? Say, as middle managers and retirees sidle of to the genius bar for some tech info on this "twisted squircle thingy" where the windows button "should" be.
It's that whole zeitgeist question...when did Lolz cats, or snap bracelets become blah?
Granted, the shift could be minor...who truly gets sick of great usability and stability? It could just be an emotional or brand image change .




July 09 2008 at 11:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Diem's comment
Raj

eh, I really don't care who's using a mac. I like mine because it's like my calculator and does what I want when I turn it on. If Joe Nongeek gets confused with the Finder, it's no skin off my back. Heck my mom still gets confused with the most simple tasks in OS X. Doesn't mean I don't like my computer any less, it just means I have one more thing to get frustrated with her about :p

July 09 2008 at 8:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oldskool

I think that if Mac's market share were to ever reach 20% we would see a version of Mac (from Apple) that runs on PCs - then we'd see a huge jump in marketshare, well beyond 20%
Is it me, or does 3.9% not seem right? I thought I read somewhere it was around 7%? 3.9 seems so 2002.

I love reading apple news now, a stark difference than what it was 10-12 years ago! Anyone remember Wired's 'Apple Death Watch'?

July 09 2008 at 7:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

Interesting theory. Microsoft, however, claims that 70% of Vista users are "very satisfied", and it also claims that Vista is the fastest selling version of Windows ever. Hmmmm....

It also seems intuitive that Apple buyers would spring from the ranks of youth making the logical purchase after an iPod ownership experience. The preponderance of these folks would be, after all, first time buyers, whether they bought a Mac or another brand. Now, if we just had a survey that measured the position "I tried a Vista machine, but the experience brought me to Apple for a Mac"...I could buy the 'Vista drives greater Mac sales' argument. It might, but the position of this article is hardly objective.

Lord, do I feel like a spoil-sport....

July 08 2008 at 9:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Matt's comment
Kev Orng

I tried a Windows 98 machine, and that experience drove me back to Mac in 2001.

July 09 2008 at 10:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Raj

Yeah, or it could be defined as a simple product of competition - Vista's competitive value is less than Apple's at the moment, so people are choosing Apple. Vista is not "driving Apple sales" in this sense, Apple is driving Apple sales because its competitive value is higher than Vista's...

There's a fundamental difference here, I think, because if Vista were truly driving Apple sales, that would mean Vista is *literally* pointing people to the Apple store, or encouraging in some other way the business of computer sales to Apple.

The fact is, consumers have their own minds, and they make decisions. Those consumers are increasingly buying Apple products for the time being, which could be an effect of Vista's suckitude, or because, hypothetically for example, Apple's increased exposure from its slowly expanding installed base among students and hip urban types, is drawing in more of your average consumers.

I dunno. I got my mom and dad on an iMac after suffering years of Win2k support and problems. Now they send email, have a digicam, and can send photos and files. Top it off with video chat with my sister in LA, and they're extremely happy. I'm sure they've told one or two of their friends, and the word-of-mouth marketing continues...

July 09 2008 at 8:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ian

"Apple is apparently poised to ship 2.5 Million Macs in the Spring". Are you from the southern hemisphere or is this a typo?

July 08 2008 at 8:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Ian's comment
Kev Orng

It's a little unclear, and as usual I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I think they meant to say that the numbers from the spring quarter, when announced, will be around 2.5 million. Shipped units, not dollars.

July 09 2008 at 9:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
goobi

The rate of increase is only going to rise. 5% of users can only spread so much of Mac love. Now with 8% the rate of spreaking is definitely going to be faster. God alone knows what will happen once it goes to 15%-20%.

Although, you might have not noticed, but Mac products are very similar in design rather than the varied combinations available to the PC world. So if 20% of the world goes Apple, that will mean that 1 out of 5 will potentially have almost the same machine as yours... that would suck.

July 08 2008 at 6:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to goobi's comment
Lee

I wouldn't be surprised to see Apple add some diversity to their product line, colors for instance, once their market share goes past 10%-15% for that very reason.

July 08 2008 at 7:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jim G

iWeb on .Mac seems to be down. I just checked my website and I get a "forbidden access denied" message. This is new to me as I was just at my site 15 minutes before. Maybe in switch for some of .Mac - Mobileme.

July 08 2008 at 6:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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