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Forbes Predicts 5% Desktop Share for Apple in 2005

Posted by timothy on from the of-course-the-rates-have-gone-up dept.

sebFlyte writes "Spurred on by the iPod, Apple's share of the desktop computer market will grow to five percent (from three percent) this year, according to research from Morgan Stanley. Apparrently nearly 20% of iPod users surveyed are planning to switch to Macs, and the sales figures for the last few quarters are backing up the theory of the iPod Halo Effect. All this suggests the question ... how many iPod-touting Slashdotters are thinking of switching?"

4 of 1,045 comments (clear)

  1. No iPod by nelsonal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I do not have an iPod (and probably won't buy one), but my next system will either be a G5 iMac or a Mac Mini. The irony is that an X-Box was the final factor in my decision, since I found myself spending most of my gameplaying time on the console, I do not need a PC around to run games.

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    Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
  2. Switching by suwain_2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to hate Macs; pre-OSX I was convinced they were complete garbage. My next computer will probably be a Mac. I do own an iPod, but it wasn't the iPod that convinced me to switch; it was seeing that OS X is based on UNIX, and that it looks incredibly spiffy, and that it's stable, and....

    Have you ever been face-to-face with their 30" Cinema? It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

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    suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
  3. Switch? by Schnapple · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Why the obsession with people "switching"? Has anyone thought that perhaps their market share is going up because people are buying a Macintosh in addition to their current machine, which they keep? If people buy Macs and then use them in addition to their Windows PC then the Mac market share goes up but the actual number of people using Windows doesn't go down.

    I think this is what Apple finally realized with the Mac Mini. They'll never get people en masse to go to the Mac cold turkey, but by giving them an affordable option, there's a lot of people who might try it since there's a way out (they can just write off the $500).

    I guess the better question is - what percentage of Mac Mini purchasers continue to use it actively and don't eventually write it off as a bad investment? And how many of them swear off Windows?

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    Schnapple

  4. Re:I'll be one of the converts by Gr8Apes · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I already converted. I bought a 15" powerbook. With after market addition of a 1GB DIMM raising the price to $2100, it does everything a $2500 windows machine does with much less worries regarding a virus, and also does the sleep mode reliably. Previous experience with a Windows 2K laptop weren't near as pleasant and I've only been using it for 3 weeks.

    Yes, there's some getting used to Mac ways of doing things, and some "unlearning" of bad windows habits. But, all in all, it's roughly equivalent to switching to a new Windows version as far as learning curve goes, with the additional benefit that everything just seems to work as a cohesive whole.

    Now someone will come along and say - but this item works in some screwy way. I haven't found that item yet. ;)

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    The cesspool just got a check and balance.