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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. '"
Friends, have you considered the possibility that this is part of an elaborate Japanese plot to force us all to use their so-called "Wee".
Also, there is well documented evidence that Apple computers are not suitable for impressionable children and promote the use of dangerous and illegal "Wi-Fi" technology in our AirPorts.
Fortunately, sober and well-written articles such as these provide a cogent argument against the Macintosh cult.
Isn't David Hasselhoff also hug in Japan?
I'll tell you that I just got back from Japan a couple of weeks ago and there is a serious hunger for Apple's products. When there, every time I pulled out my iPhone to check an appointment or change a tune (or anything), I had people asking me all about it. Even in technology jaded Japan where you can watch TV on your cell phone, they are absolutely stoked about Apple's iPhone. My comment to one guy in the Apple store there when I went in to buy a cable and became a minor celebrity due to possessing an iPhone was "what's the big deal, you have the iPod touch", to which he responded, "but that is the iPhone and we don't have that yet!".
Just wait for the true subnotebook or tablet. That is going to sell huge in Japan.
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It seems there was some confusion about what kinds of devices you could install Leopard on, so these numbers may not hold up for long....
The world's only surviving livewriter.
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
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
Leopard does feature better Japanese support. See Apple's "300 features" page here and here. I'm not saying that makes the upgrade worth it necessarily. But it does add additional incentive for Japanese users.
OSx86- You don't have to pirate it; you can buy an install disc and patch that. I've seen Japanese blogs popping up every so often talking about how they got Mac OS X on their laptops (one mentioned how liberating it was to have -essentially- a Mac with 8 hours of battery life- the computer in question was a Panasonic T5).
OSx86 FTW
Personally, I need a computing environment that supports both Japanese and English seamlessly. Leopard fits the bill nicer than anything else I've ever used, including Vista (which I have to admit is pretty good).
This
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2 Upgrade had a market share of 7.2%. The Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2 Upgrade . That's the one that is only good for upgrading Windows 95/98. 7.2%. WTF.
A friend of mine with a 3G-capable blackberry-like phone in the US (West Coast) said he ran races with his iPhone-using friend. According to him, her iPhone loaded many pages (over EDGE) more quickly than his 3G-capable phone. The explanation was that the chipset in the iPhone (among other things) was much faster than what was on his phone. (Wish I knew what kind of phone he was using, sorry.)
Anyhow, all this hand-wringing over the best features, like criticisms of 1st gen iPods, misses the point that what works in practice can't be compared to theoretical bests. The iPhone is amazing primarily because of its OS and the fact that web use of EDGE is rare.
When the telcos offer better networks (speed and coverage) hopefully successors to the iPhone 1.0 (including non-Apple competitors) will improve on what the iPhone has to offer. For now, people like you are considered "insightful" for what amounts to a wish list.
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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.
The main reason I haven't upgraded yet is that there is, at present, a significant bug in Kotoeri (the Japanese IME) for Leopard. If you type the word "hatake" (which means "field") and scroll through the list of potential kanji, and you get to the "display more" option, the entire IME freezes and is impossible to recover. The same thing happens with "hisashi", and I'm sure a number of other words as well.
.1 release.
There are videos of this floating around YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1pVOJL41x0), and I checked it out myself at the local Apple store. Total IME lock-up, and it uses up 100% of your processor time.
Other than that glaring bug, Leopard is easily the most friendly Japanese OS out there, and it now has a big-name Japanese dictonary & thesaurus, as well as J-E and E-J dictionaries built right in.
Here's hoping Apple gets their shit sorted out for the
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
Dear Apple users on Slashdot,
in 1976 I was in Cupertino, crystal bits of snowflakes all around my head and in the wind, and Steve Wozniak and me thought we could make a few Dollars selling homemade computers. Delivering breakthrough devices like the Apple II and the Macintosh, we were successful, until the Mac clones almost doomed our company*. But here's my comeback on the road again; things will happen while they can. Right now I'm writing this post on my MacBook Pro while I will wait here for my man tonight (it's easy when you're big in Japan).
Sincerely,
Steve Jobs
Oh, one more thing: We're still big in Japan. Alright!
* You did what you did to me, now it's history I see...
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Tiger und Leoparden sind nicht gut. Holen Sie Panzer. Mit Maschinengewehr.