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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."

18 of 724 comments (clear)

  1. Over $1000? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Apple makes computers that sell for less than a thousand?

    I jest... I jest...

  2. 66%? What a coincidence. by Leftist+Troll · · Score: -1, Troll

    Studies show that 66% of Mac users are sexually aroused by homo-erotic images.

  3. Re:Correction by erlehmann · · Score: 0, Troll

    But Mac apps, on average, are more thoughtfully designed and crafted than their equivalents on PCs.

    Yeah, mac design is really superiour. FYI: Last time I checked one could choose between a blue-gray and a gray-blue color scheme. Great !
  4. Re:You get... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You get 4 reboots in a row when a printer driver fails to work properly and completely freezes up after it has been quite operational for 3 months. Add to that twice removing drivers and reinstalling them, getting intermittent errors before finally giving up and printing from a PC

    Don't forget Finder's crappy interface, the feeling of being buried under windows and having to shovel your way through just to find other windows, inability to alt-tab properly, inability to maximize windows, the idiotic application menu completely separated from the window (extremely useful when using dual screens and your window is on one monitor and the application menu on another), Mail crashes when trying to change incoming mail sounds to custom sounds... but hey, at least the "force quit" menu option is easy to find. Oh, spinny-clown-ball-of-death, I love you so much more than the blue screen of death.

    Sometimes, I get the feeling apple is only "stable" because they learned how to walk a tight rope between stability and instability, by not actually making good software that runs well and following good software development practices, but by making software that only runs on a specific kind of hardware, the superior hardware you refer to. With each new iteration of their OS, they try to find a breaking point of their OS, and try to get it *just* stable enough to be more stable than Windows (which, btw, are designed to run on any piece of crap hardware you could throw at it. (Notice I said 'designed', not 'developed').

    There's also the added bonus of smugness that they sell to apple users that their computers are actually superior because they have "better" hardware.

    I should know, I'm a Mac user.

    Still, I know I can trust my MBP because it's light enough. "Never trust a computer you can't throw out the window." Woz, don't tempt me.

  5. Re:$1,000 market dominance... by story645 · · Score: -1, Troll

    Because all the laptops (mac's real market for computers-and I can't even find one under a 1000 at the moment) under 1000 aren't really useful. They give those things (actually the macbooks-which a 'lil over the 1000 price point) for free to the honor's college kids at my school, and well half the engineers/architects I know wanna buy dell's and the like 'cause the macbooks can barely handle their apps, when compatibility issues don't start up.
    The mac mini is utterly adorable-but I can but a more powerful dell for the same price (or a fit-pc for cheaper)-most people who really care about a small pc just by a laptop.

    --
    open source modern art: laser taggi
  6. Price != High End by TheNetAvenger · · Score: 1, Troll

    Price does not equal high-end. Considering you can't even buy a Mac or Macbook with what is the current technology high-end, this is more than a bit misleading.

    Show me a Macbook with a 7950GTX let alone a 8800M video Card, or god forbid, an SLI video notebook. We still have OLD 2005 notebooks with 1920x1200 17" displays that runs circles around Macbooks, and even most Mac Desktops. And this is really sad... (Our graphic designers run from Mac Hardware for these reasons alone)

    Even the desktop models are medium range technology, and to get high-end performance, you have to replace Video at the minimum as well.

    (And this doesn't even touch the horrid Apple LCDs in notebooks, especially the newly beloved OLED notbooks that tests show lose 20% of their color fidelity within six months of usage (1000 hours).)

    For overpriced computers, Apple has more suckers... As for 'high-end' computing Apple doesn't even make a high end computer.

  7. MAJOR correction to the story by ILuvRamen · · Score: -1, Troll

    The headline was actually seriously incorrect. It should read "66% Apple Market Share For Sales of Expensive PCs." Saying high end implies that they're actually fast, good, or comparable to machines running other OSes. The fact that a Linux machine half the cost (or what the heck, a windows one too probably) is the same "speed" sort of throws that statement out the window.

    --
    Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
  8. Re:Correction by transiit · · Score: 0, Troll

    It has been my experience that people that exclaim how Mac OS X is a "true UNIX" are often the type that never touch the command-line and haven't experienced the level of crap that is apple glomming-on all their filesystem meta-data to the things that resemble unix the most.

    Keep in mind that the Mach microkernel is not unix, it came from CMU. Some userland stuff came from the *BSD lineage, but calling OS X a "true UNIX" rings about as true as calling windows + cygwin the same.

  9. Re:You get... by MsGeek · · Score: 0, Troll

    It's not just the CPU in question here, and you know it. Let's see...get a good motherboard from, say, Intel or Asus. Then get a shit mobo from Elitegroup, aka PC Chips. Put two identical Core 2 Duo chips in them. Put Crucial RAM in the Intel board and crap no-name RAM from Fried Electronics in the Elitegroup. Get good peripherals for the Intel or Asus, and buy no-name crud for the Elitegroup. Load both with Ubuntu. Boot. Run a "burn-in" utility that will EXERCISE that machine for days on end. See which one fails first. Hint: it won't be the one with the top-drawer parts. It will be the one with the Hacked-by-Chinese, bargain-basement stuff surrounding the perfectly identical Core 2 Duo chips.

    Q. E. D.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
  10. Can we move this thread along. by Odder · · Score: 0, Troll

    This threadjack was supposed to move this conversation AWAY from masturbation. Please quit telling us about your favorite Slashdot user's exploits. Your obsession is disturbing. I'd rather you just bought Vista and vanished in a cloud of DRM induced logic.

  11. Re:$1,000 market dominance... by CowboyBob500 · · Score: 0, Troll

    See this is what I really don't understand. $1000 is approximately £500. I earn that in one day. From here it looks like the US economy must be really going down the pan if $1000 is too much for a high end computer.

    Bob

  12. Re:You get... by JamesRose · · Score: 0, Troll

    Dell doesn't include the 3 year mis-splaced sense of superiority package which the fan boys use oh so much.

  13. Indeed by Wiseman1024 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Indeed, what those business idiots call "high-end" is just "high-price-end". And we all know Apple's products are grossly, obscenely overpriced. That doesn't mean you're getting a better system though. And it includes the license for their Defective by Design operating system, which you wouldn't pay for if you were using a free OS that is free. Another very expensive thing included in Apple products is "style" (the popular intangible feature that serves no use other than making you feel better than others). Apple's metrosexual-appeal is as expensive as gold coating.

    I suppose Mac people will never want to buy cheap, even if Apple decided to sell something at fair prices for once. They need to feel superior, stylish and trendy, and for that, they need to be paying for something more expensive than their neighbour's, regardless of the actual performance or quality.

    --
    I was about to say 13256278887989457651018865901401704640, but it appears this number is private property.
  14. Re:$1,000 market dominance... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Your example is one that perfectly points out the dangers that Apple would face if they went toe-to-toe with Dell for $500 laptops and grey boxes. Your response typifies mac fanboy elitism.
  15. Re:be careful by PopeRatzo · · Score: -1, Troll

    What does Vista sucking have to do with Apple users being trendy fags?

    It's a big enough universe for both to be true.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  16. Re:You get... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Cue some jackass fanboy raving "It's the OS too!"

  17. Re:Style is money by cayenne8 · · Score: 0, Troll
    "True. Those failing for the social status/glamour/fashion/style/trend scheme are certainly retarded. The kind of people that make the gross of our society."

    I take it from your posts like this...that you do not have very much disposable income. You just sound jealous, or are trolling.

    Obviously, Apple is not marketing to you....

    There are LOT of people out there that have a lot of money. They like to spend it on nice things, which often (surprise) cost money. There's a reason there are Porsches, Vettes, $2M homes, fur coats, diamonds, etc. There is a market for this, and if you have the means, there is nothing wrong with treating yourself to the luxuries of life. Can you afford to drop a grand on one dinner? $300 bottle of champagne? If so...more power to you, enjoy. That's why people work hard, to get money to buy the things they enjoy and make life more fun.

    If you can't...and are happy with it, that's cool too. But, when you bitch about it, it just makes you sound jealous.

    If you want these things...work harder, or do what it takes to make more money. If you don't desire it..fine, but quit bitching about people that do and can.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  18. Re:Style is money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Uhmm.. a decent pair of jeans cost $200. Nerd.