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Apple's Share of PC Users Drops To A Five-Year Low (infoworld.com)
Windows 10 is installed on 24.5% of devices -- but that's only half the story. "Apple's Mac share of personal computers worldwide fell to a five-year low in December," reports Computerworld, adding that Linux and Windows "both benefited, with increases of around a half percentage point during 2016."
An anonymous reader quotes their report:
According to web analytics vendor Net Applications, Apple's desktop and notebook operating system -- formerly OS X, now macOS -- powered just 6.1% of all personal computers last month, down from 7% a year ago and a peak of 9.6% as recently as April 2016... The Mac's 6.1% user share in December was the lowest mark recorded by Net Applications since August 2011, more than five years ago... In October, the company reported sales of 4.9 million Macs for the September quarter, a 14% year-over-year decline and the fourth straight quarterly downturn. Apple's sales slide during the past 12 months has been steeper than for the personal computer industry as a whole, according to industry researchers from IDC and Gartner, a 180-degree shift from the prior 30 or so quarters, when the Mac's growth rate repeatedly beat the business average.
Apple's success through 2016 was "fueled by Microsoft's stumbles with Windows 8 and a race-to-the-bottom mentality among rival OEMs," according to the article, which also notes that the user share for Linux exceeded 2% in June, and reached 2.3% by November.
Apple's success through 2016 was "fueled by Microsoft's stumbles with Windows 8 and a race-to-the-bottom mentality among rival OEMs," according to the article, which also notes that the user share for Linux exceeded 2% in June, and reached 2.3% by November.
While they continue to pull defeat from the jaws of victory with baffling regularity(eg. needlessly atrocious touchpads for no obvious reason); it's amazing how much less-bad your average PC laptop is today, when compared to the race-to-the-bottom and "Yeah, it's a 15in low-res screen and 2 inches thick" era. Models that can go directly head-to-head with Apple's finest are rarer; but you can often save enough money, vs. the really classy Apple gear, that a few minor sins can be overlooked. Combine that with Apple's more or less total neglect of anything desktop/workstation, which is a boring segment but moves a lot of hardware; and the fair success of Chromebooks as practically-disposable cheap 'n portable options; and you have a few reasons why OSX marketshare might not be doing as well outside of the truly devoted.
Back in the day, an ibook/macbook was both good and actually one of the cheaper options if you needed something small and light; mac minis stacked up reasonably favorably against all but the most atrocious cheapy towers; and Mac Pros were pretty respectably priced workstation offerings. I remember, back when they were still doing the intel-based 'cheese grater' case Pros; we were a Dell shop but when we priced out the Pros vs. equivalent Precisions our Dell rep turned a slightly unhealthy color and had to cut us a deal to make it worth going with those rather than just bootcamping the macs. That...isn't exactly...how the world works anymore.
And Valve is no longer a game developer.
They are a gambling site and games retailer.
Both succeed in their attempts to gain more money =P
Very true. Almost everyone in graphic design used to run Apple hardware, but over the past few years we've seen a mass exodus to traditional PC hardware because Apple doesn't provide hardware that is even remotely competitive anymore. Even Adobe's in house Photoshop and Illustrator professionals have moved back to Windows and standard PC hardware. I regularly watch Adobe's official Twitch channel and I don't think I've seen an Apple user in months and a lot of the broadcasters were diehard Apple users just 5 years ago.
I am no OSX expert, but it seems surprisingly rough in several areas. The functions you can perform in the different views of finder aren't even consistent. For example, you can select a range of files in the list view but not in the icon view. Often in icon view you are forced to scroll both horizontally and vertically to see all files since the icons don't wrap. They abandoned the standard nomenclature of 'cut/paste' for files, and instead you must 'copy/move-paste' which is difficult to find because you have to double-tap and press the option key to even see the option. Overall I can get things done ok, but it seems quite clumsy in many ways for an OS that is required on 'Pro' machines.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
So make an actual "Pro" model that offers more RAM and better graphics and has a bigger battery as a result. Believe it or not most users who want those things value them more than thinness and lightness at this point. Apples devices are plenty thin and plenty light right now! Nobody cares if it weighs an extra pound or two if it actually has the features people want. Leave the thinner, lighter, unreapairable lineup as the consumer lineup and offer a thicker, heavier, repairable and upgradable lineup for "Pro" users. That's what people want.
Yes, I don't know if it's Tim Cock, Phil Schiller or Johny Ive to blame, but due to recent years total ignorance towards the mac, I finally switched from Mac to PC (Linux) for the first time since 1993.
The design aspect has gone totally to their head, the macbook pro used to be not only good looking, but on of the best portables on the market, the recent incarnation is a overpriced joke.
The mac desktops used to be good albeit quite expensive, it's just crap today. Either you got the mac pro which is outdated and non expandable or you have their "laptops in a desktop casing" offers like the imac or macmini.
It's really a shame as Mac OS X sorry, macOS is still a good system, but the lack of good hardware to run it on makes the decision easy.
Perhaps the Apple board wakes up an realizes they have people inside that is ruining Apples computer business before it's too late, the cellphone business may be blooming right now but personally I lost interest in the "latest" and "greatest" smartphone several years ago, smart watches never caught my attention and while tables have their uses they won't replace the desktop regardless what Apple thinks considering the iPad Pro, Microsoft been trying the same thing for years with the surface- but their offer at least can be used as a computer, the ipad is just an exaggerated iphone and once you run out of options on App store it's a paperweight.