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Leopard Claims Half the Japanese OS Market In October
hoagiecat writes "Is Apple like all those bands who claim to be "huge in Japan"? Leopard accounted for 53 percent of boxed operating systems sold in Japan in October — even though it was only on sale for the last six days of the month. 'The software went on sale worldwide on Oct. 26 with sales kicking off at 6 p.m. local time in each country. Users in New Zealand and Australia got their hands on Leopard first, but Tokyo saw the first launch at an Apple retail store. About 200 people lined up in light rain to buy the software at Apple's store in the ritzy Ginza district of Tokyo. Lines also formed at other Apple stores across the country and at major electronics retailers, where special events were held to mark the start of sales. Combined with other sales of other operating systems including Tiger, Apple had an overall 60.7 percent share of the market in October -- that's a big jump from the 15.5 percent share it had in September, which was itself the highest share Apple had managed to get so far in 2007. '"
1/2 the OS market would mean that 1/2 of the machines in japan are farily new Macintoshes. Thats unheard of market penetration.
Or will it now run on whitebox PC's and i missed the announcement?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I don't really see what the big deal is with this. A bunch of people picked up a copy as soon as it was available. So what? It doesn't say much about the total number of Mac users in Japan.
Am I missing something or is some one trying to turn the initial surge from the release of a new version, into a long standing trend?
that's a big jump from the 15.5 percent share it had in September, which was itself the highest share Apple had managed to get so far in 2007.
This big jump makes sense, really. Who in their right mind would buy Tiger a month before Leopard is coming out, unless they specifically can't/wouldn't use Leopard for some reason? It's more impressive to me that they're beating out Microsoft, but I guess MS relies on the PC makers for most of its sales; it doesn't really need to specifically sell Vista when people are replacing their PCs fairly often. Macs generally last longer (or at least are kept longer) from what I hear, so it's more likely that someone will buy a boxed copy of a Mac OS upgrade than a Windows upgrade.
Without context these numbers mean little. How many copies of boxed OSs are sold in a typical month? A year? How has Windows boxed software been trending? Is it perhaps something that peaked a year or two back because everyone who needed Windows already had it installed OEM or had purchased their upgrades? And what part of the Japanese computer market is Mac, as opposed to PC?
For all we know Leopard only sold 250 copies nationwide. Or this may be a one time spike that means nothing.
Three Squirrels
It'd be notable if Apple did much worse than this.
1.) It's boxed sales. The people who upgrade via boxed sales are the ones who aren't going to wait to get new hardware to upgrade the OS. These people are likely to be the early adopters who will buy within the first week
2.) Vista has been out for a while, and the people who have upgraded via boxed sales have likely done it by now. Vista sales come from OEM distribution, not buying a shiny box at Best Buy.
3.) I would expect the numbers for November to drop substantially, as the early adopters will have their copies, and sales of boxed copies drop. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if hardware sales pick up a bit, as people find the holiday season and new OS to be a good time to take the plunge and buy a new computer.
The numbers to pay attention to are Apple's share of new sales, especially in laptops, and Apple's share of total installed base (which is harder to calculate accurately).
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Yes, because it's not like a 3G chipset uses any battery...
That's odd, my iPhone works great as a phone, and the battery life is just fine. The charge lasts for days. I do not use it as an iPod though. I guess you do not own an iPhone, huh?
I suspect that if you look at sales of boxed operating systems on Oct. 26 from 6 pm to 6 am Apple had a nearly 100% share. The statistic is nearly meaningless. The initial rush for Vista already took place.
And somehow a line of 200 whole people in a city of 12 million (0.00166% of the population) doesn't seem like very many. More than 200 people probably lined up in the light rain to buy the Japanese equivalent of hot dogs that night.
OS X displays beautiful Japanese text. Windows is barely legible by comparison.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." - Bob Dylan
The apple os is a wee bit harder to pirate. As you need to have an Apple first.
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
I don't think it should surprise anyone that when a new upgrade comes around for OS X that every Mac user is immediately going to descend on it. Let's see how long these figures are sustained.
Umm, you do know the difference between a "market" and an "install base," right? When the headline reads, "Apple claims 8% of US computer sales" that means they sold 8% of the computers in the last quarter or month or year or whatever they're using as a measure. It does not mean Apple machines make up 8% of all the computers in the US. Apple claimed half the market in Japan last quarter. They did not claim half the install base or even half the combined market for OS's and OS+hardware bundles. Maybe you just need a better understanding of the terms used.
because you need new hardware.
so for Vista, you buy a new PC.
for leopard, well, you install it on your old mac, just like you did the last 3 major upgrades
People are willing to pay to upgrade their copy of OSX because the new versions have new features that appeal to them. Nobody buys new versions of Windows for 5 years because new versions haven't come out. Now that one finally has, barely anyone actually wants to get it on their old systems, and many are even demanding the old version on their new systems.
Contrast.
So why are we surprised that OS X ruled the market there? Japanese consumers aren't terribly fond of shitty products. You know, like Vista...
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Jaded??? you ever lived in Japan? I do. tehy are far from jaded. your tech gaget is a symbol of your self worth here. Cell phones that aren't used to 10% of their ability are thrown out and bought new in under a year!!
This is the most status symbol obsessed place I've ever been for an extended period(been here 2 years total). This would only compare to maybe, just maybe, a small subset of LA. But here, it's EVERYONE in the target age. Apple markets a brand and then inflates prices to make sure it looks like one.
You'll find girls working at a fast food restaurant who live in the shabbiest conditions imaginable but still save up to buy the latest Gucci and Burberry (and this isn't rare at all) fashion. This is the only country where people earning 20k a year are willing to buy a 500 dollar handbag.
This place is far, far, far from jaded. That the iPhone is far LESS capable than any local cell phone in this country(even the ones you get for free), it doesn't matter a bit because people don't buy their things here based on capabilities. They will buy an iPhone when the fashion magazine advertises it with clothing(for girls and guys). The comment at the end has nothing to do with a hunger for apple; just a hunger for what is considered the greatest status symbol available. Want to see a country that will drink the kool-aid as fast as you can offer it? Come here.
I have lived in Japan for five years now, speak fluent Japanese, and can tell you that, although the average American phone makes me shake my head in pity for the crap that is forced upon my fellow countrymen, the iPhone is definitely on par with what Japan has to offer. Japanese phones usually go for design over functionality, with innovations being focused on screen quality, the built-in camera, and music playback ability.
However, phones here are just as closed as in the States, so as to charge the user as much as possible for access to each carrier's unique flavor of internet access and multimedia content. Want access to the regular internet? Each time you start up a session and connect to a page, they charge you 300 yen for the privilege. My Japanese friends were impressed that I had figured out how to get around Docomo's file-naming obfuscation on my SD card so that I was able to upload photos and video as well as download them without having to use the network.
By the way, a correction to your rule of thumb: the cooler something is, the more Japanes talk about it. They're all about giving kudos, and I got sufficient compliments for my iPod Touch. I just had a high school student write an essay where she claimed that the iPod was the world's greatest invention, and that the iPhone would be even better. If the Japanese aren't saying much about a gadget, it's either because they just really aren't gadget people or you're bragging about it too much. If they're openly belittling something of yours, you're most likely not actually in Japan.
As for the actual article referred to by the submitter, Apple's great triumph was to claim half of the boxed OS sales for October. What kind of a statistic is that? Most new PCs are sold with Windows pre-installed, not boxed; hardly anybody buys it separately. So what Apple is saying is that more Apple users went out and bought the new OS for their old computer than PC users bought a boxed version of Windows. How surprising is that statistic? What percentage of the Windows-using public actually ever consider upgrading the OS separate from buying a new computer?
I'm a Mac user, but Macs are only slightly better represented in Japan than anywhere else. Apple lost a lot of market share in the 90s that it has failed to take back, and Microsoft's site-wide licenses work well with Japanese corporate and government institutional mentality. japanese typically admit to liking Macs, but a lot of the universal stereotypes carry over (too expensive), plus they want something that they know works with everybody else.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life