Slashdot Mirror


Apple Devices To Outsell Windows For First Time Ever In 2013

zacharye writes "Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have long been considered the future of computing and a new projection from market research firm Gartner shows just how important the mobile market has become. According to the firm's estimates for 2013, Apple devices will outsell Windows devices for the first time this year. The estimate takes into account sales of Apple's iPhones, iPads and Mac computers as well as desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones powered by Microsoft's various Windows operating systems..."

27 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does this mean the DOJ will finally pay attention to Apple and their "fair for everyone, especially the consumers, no this isn't an abuse of power or monopolistic tendencies, hey look over there, there is nothing to see here" policies?

  2. Not the whole picture by pcjunky · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Mobile phones really skewed things. However if you take things like Andriod into account Apple's share is still quite small. It just that Microsoft has almost no presence in the mobile phone market. Bill would not have let this happen had he still been in charge.

    1. Re:Not the whole picture by dc29A · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bill would not have let this happen had he still been in charge.

      Ah yes, Bill Gates the visionary. Almost missed TCP/IP (had to be begged to implement it) ... and the Internet. Was the SPAM problem supposed to be solved in what? 3 years in 2004? Bill let the whole tablet market slip from his fingers, at least a good 9 years before the iPad.

      He was in the right place at the right time. Nothing more. Definitely not a visionary.

  3. Xbox and Windows CE? by Megor1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Did they include Xbox and windows CE devices?

    --
    Everyone that disagrees with me is a paid shill
  4. It's not so much Apple's superiority. . . by whozatmac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    . . . Microsoft has done this to themselves. Having failed to come up with a compelling mobile space product, they decided to force the half baked mobile OS on desktops, where they had, for better or worse, at least established themselves. No one is buying windows 8 machines that owns any previous windows computer. . . and those who hadn't bought a computer yet are buying tablets and phones and other internet consumption products. Now Microsoft wants to kill of thier segment of the content creation space. It's baffling.

  5. And the Cozy Coupe was the best selling car... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In 2008, the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe was the best selling car in the US. However I don't think Toyota was overly concerned about the competition. Apple devices include things like the iPod. Microsoft's big money maker has always been business licensing. When Apple makes double digit market share in the enterprise arena, this will be news.

    http://jalopnik.com/5282451/little-tikes-cozy-coupe-the-best-selling-car-in-america

  6. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Meh, this is just being posted to wake up the iFans and get their rabid page-clicks.

    Android has been outselling Windows for a long time now, and will pass the entire Microsoft installed base in about 18 months.

  7. Re:The King is dead by AvitarX · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Probably not, their markets have healthy competition.

    --
    Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  8. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by couchslug · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft offers what it thinks you should have.

    Apple offers what attracts people.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  9. Define "computing" by istartedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Passively reading news, or tweeting out the occasional 140-character update on your boring life is not "computing" to me. Watching videos isn't computing. Playing games isn't computing, even if it is computationally intensive for the device.

    Call me when people start running spreadsheets on these things, or are using them as their primary development platform.

    I think it would be more fair to say that these devices have surpassed the PC as interactive entertainment devices, as opposed to "computing" devices.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  10. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You do realize that Jobs was the one who said "people don't know what they want"? Apple is the #1 perpetrator of dictating to users what they "should" want.

  11. Re:The King is dead by jamesh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does this mean the DOJ will finally pay attention to Apple and their "fair for everyone, especially the consumers, no this isn't an abuse of power or monopolistic tendencies, hey look over there, there is nothing to see here" policies?

    If Apple devices have just outsold Microsoft, then it would imply that there is a somewhat decent balance in the marketplace and the word 'monopoly' is probably misplaced here.

  12. Re:The King is dead by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Probably not, their markets have healthy competition.

    That's correct and they are suing them like crazy.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  13. It's called "moving the goalposts" by gman003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft "devices" (which apparently means "Windows devices" - mainly laptops, desktops and servers, with a few smartphones and tablets) are being outsold by Apple devices (mainly smartphones, tablets, and laptops, with a handful of desktops and even fewer servers).

    In other news, Ford is outselling Airbus in terms of vehicles sold, and India makes more films than America.

    Not only is there the whole computer-vs-mobile thing (with mobile being a growing market and actual computers having plateaued), but Microsoft itself is pretty new as a hardware manufacturer. They make Surface RT, Surface Pro, two generations of Xbox, the Zune, and a long series of mice and keyboards. Whereas Apple has been making hardware since day 1. So a more fair comparison would be "hardware sold" and "software sold" (not counting OS copies bundled with the hardware). Bet you it ends up with each winning one.

    PS: Doesn't the Xbox count as a "Microsoft device"? TFA doesn't say, but they don't seem to include it. Seems unfair to have "OS X + iOS" versus "Windows" when Microsoft has their own locked-down, walled-garden media-consuming device.

  14. Re:The King is dead by Miamicanes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Microsoft doesn't back down and quit trying to cripple desktop PCs into second-rate tablets, Apple just might beat Microsoft for new desktop and laptop sales in some future year, too. Especially if PC hardware continues its relentless race to the crap commodity bottom & Apple can resist the urge to do the same with its hardware.

    Don't laugh. Back in 2008. if you told a group of guys with Windows Mobile phones that it would be dead from Microsoft-induced suicide by 2010, you would have gotten laughed at. The original iPhone was a dumbed-down crippled toy by comparison, and Android was just a whispered rumor. Microsoft had a device that was largely dysfunctional for making voice calls, but one hell of a kick-ass pocket laptop with wireless internet access.Then, right around the time they finally started to look like they were learning how to make a phone... they pulled the plug.

    Three years ago, Microsoft crawled from the Vista abyss and gave us Windows 7. The skies parted, the angels sang praises not heard since the midnight release parties of Windows95... then Microsoft threw it all away two years later in the wretched name of Metro.

    Microsoft is proof-positive that corporate insanity (or alzheimer's) is real and exists. They're going to put themselves out of business, then wonder how they could have fallen so far, and so completely, in so little time. And if they don't, it'll only be due to thirdparty developers working tirelessly to give us the Windows we actually *want*.

  15. Re:The King is dead by fangorious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Microsoft and Google.

  16. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't want Blu-ray playback, if it means the OS has to conform with the required DRM hooks.

    If you're on a Mac the OS already does. It's more about licensing with MPEGLA and protecting the iTunes ecosystem.

  17. Re:The King is dead by nzac · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Especially if PC hardware continues its relentless race to the crap commodity bottom & Apple can resist the urge to do the same with its hardware.

    The race to the bottom happens because the consumer wants and will buy cheap products. The only reason they will pay more is if the cheap product is not good enough. The problem is that Android and ChromeOS can go far lower than windows can. Future generations of ARM chromebooks are far more of a threat to Microsoft than Apple will ever be.

    The apple brand is too strong for OEMs to make significant sales at that price-point so they need to go lower. If you can go lower than everyone else while still providing an adequate product then you corner 30 to 50 percent of the market. If the race to the bottom is not happening then anti trust laws should be brought out.

  18. Re:The King is dead by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Apple owns their own store. It is not a third party. They can do whatever they want in their own store. If they threatened Best Buy that's another story. Apple has the right not to carry Windows in their brick and mortar stores as much as MS has the right not to sell Apple products in their stores. Please try again.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  19. Re:The King is dead by FirstOne · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Android based products outsells Apple by a significant margin. Then throw in the sales of all sorts of NAS/set-tops Sat&Cable boxes/xDSL routers/Blu-ray players/Media players/Tivo/Smart tv's running linux.

    Makes Linux the world's Dominant Operating System.

    Unfortunately.. few people are aware of that Linux OS is behind a large portion of this technological revolution.

  20. Re:The King is dead by BasilBrush · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sure, there are other mobile device software stores.

    You can't define the market as "software stores for iOS devices" because Apple makes all the iOS devices, and you can't be guilty of having a monopoly of your own product.

    See inkjet printers, games consoles and razors. It's perfectly legal and non-monopolistic to tie a base product with add ons and consumables. So long as there are other viable choices of system.

  21. Re:Interesting observation because MS != Apple by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's not what "people" want. That's only what "SeaFox" wants.

    You really think people don't appreciate being able to increase the storage on their cell phone or tablet without having to buy a whole new device? And I'm sure there's no gamers out there with Macs who would like to be able to use a high-end graphics card without having to plunk down for the top-end pro tower from Apple.

    Go to any Mac forum and read from the creative professionals upset the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in any major way in three years. Or the folks with 24-27" iMacs annoyed they have that IPS screen and can't watch HD video on it unless they either rebuy their movies on iTunes or jump through hoops encoding/space-shifting their own content because they can't just pop the disc in the drive and play it like on a PC.

    If you're gonna be a troll, you could at least not make yourself look like a moron in the process.

  22. Define "No True Scotsman" by Kjella · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If we take "passively reading news" to include other sources like forums, home pages, blogs etc. then most web browsing is excluded in general. If "tweeting out the occasional 140-character update" isn't computing then everything from IRC to e-mail to posting on Slashdot isn't either. Take away "watching videos" then I'm guessing that excludes listening til music, watching pictures or any other form of similar activity too, we've already excluded social activities and commenting as blabbering so all of Facebook and YouTube has nothing to do with computing. When you exclude things that are computationally hard for the computer but not for me, then I think you've excluded 95%+ of all I've ever used my computer for personally. Even compiling from source probably shouldn't count as "computation" then, if all you do is make && make install.

    Let me try phrasing it it another way, what were the reasons I wanted to upgrade to a better PC in the past? Playing MP3s and MIDI was big in the 90s, better graphics modes in the 90s and HD video in the 2000s, games the 80s until present. In fact, I don't think I've ever wanted a new computer to make my spreadsheets go faster or to get my compilation times down. So since you've excluded all the reason I'd like to have or upgrade a computer, I guess it hasn't lost as a computing device only as a PC. Because I guess almost all the things I've used it for over the last decades haven't been computing, silly me. Oh and the really heavy computation you now do on a server or in the cloud, welcome to the new mainframes - on my desk at work is nothing but a thin client.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  23. Re:The King is dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And we Nokia guys (which in Europe was pretty much *everyone*) laughed at the crashing piece of shit that Windows Phones were, and laughed even more at the ridiculously limited iPhones.

    You idiots don't even know history. We had "one hell of a pocket laptop" in freaking 2002! It could do everything you'd expect from a small PC. Hell, I ran Putty on that thing, tested web applications, chatted via IM+ (all networks), played games, listened to music, watched videos, ordered files, edited documents, and changed whatever setting I wanted... all with every hardware bell and whistle you could want back then.

    If Nokia would have kept its balls and not run after shitty Apple but aimed *higher* (which is not hard, considering Apple aims and complete morons and *only* those), and if Microsoft wouldn't have injected their mole (piece of shit and all-time enemy of half of Europe), Nokia would still kick everyone's ass today.
    Hell, even with the mole, their hardware still easily blows everything else out of the water. And Jolla will steamroll the market again, in a few years.

  24. Re:The King is dead by DKlineburg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ok, so MS owns it OS, yet the EU told them they had to put in a different browser? How is this different?

    --
    Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
  25. Re:The King is dead by Sique · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Here, it gets complicated. The main reason is Dalvik, a layer above the kernel itself. From a pure OS point of view, it's a shell, allowing the starting and stopping of applications. At the same time, it's also the only available interface to the kernel. Thus, from an application point of view, it acts like the OS itself. Often, it's called a platform, abstracting the real OS. Google could replace Linux at any time within Andoid, and for the applications, it wouldn't make any difference. That's why you can develop Android apps in the Android SDK on your computer which is neither ARM based as the Android devices the apps will later installed on nor necessarily runs Linux as its OS - Dalvik is presenting a layer against which the apps are built, and which acts the same on any OS it is running on.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  26. Re: The King is dead by Rational · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can only buy a 911 from Porsche. Obviously, they are a monopoly that needs breaking up.

    --
    "Be nice, veer left, and never stop thinking" Iain Banks - Walking On Glass