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66% Apple Market Share For Sales of High-End PCs
An anonymous reader lets us know about a recent analysis of retail computer sales numbers that shines a spotlight on Apple's sales growth as the PC market has flattened. In the lucrative >$1,000 PC segment, in the first quarter of 2008, Apple's retail market share was 66%. This includes a 64% market share for laptops and a market share for desktops of 70%. The article attributes the bulk of this success to Apple's stores. Fortune picked up this report and pointed out the somewhat obvious fact that the >$1,000 PC segment is Apple's by default, since Dell, HP, and Lenovo sell the bulk of their machines in the $500-$750 range, and Apple has only one model selling for less than $1,000. As the analyst said, "If you don't give people a choice [in the Apple stores], people will spend more."
My 17" HP dv9500, at $1285, actually has more features than the $2995 17" Apple PowerBook, at least last November, which I placed the order. Same 2.4GHz Intel Core2 Duo CPU (Apple, being the only Intel-only house left, was able to offer a 2.6GHz as a pricey option), same memory (2GB), similar arrangement of ports (not identical), etc.
Sure, the HP came with 64-bit Vista rather than MacOS, but even if MacOS were the best OS human history, it wouldn't have been much value... all my apps are on Windows. Some simply don't exist on MacOS, others would have run the tab up thousands more for the same functionality, but less satisfaction (eg, I'm not about to trade Vegas for FCP or Acid for GarageBand)...
This isn't news... Apple has ALWAYS managed to seel their stuff for about 2x-3x the price of similarly powerful hardware from other companies. That's why they have all that cash in the bank. A great gig if you can get it. Just don't expect everyone to fall for it.
-Dave Haynie