Just last week news hit the wires about the Mac’s market share hitting nearly 8-percent. Actually, it wasn’t really market share so much as usage share, as pointed out by none other than Windows Super Site, and previous Dumbass Award Winner, Paul Thurrott.

I’m willing to cut the guy a little slack and acknowledge the difference. But it doesn’t matter because Thurrott continues to compare Windows to Mac. Windows is an operating system. The Mac is a platform which includes operating system and hardware, so a comparison of the two in terms of market share is pointless. Usage share is a more accurate representation of what is happening in the industry.

Apple sells the Mac, including OS X, in a limited number of market segments. No such limitation exists with Windows on PCs. Interestingly, there are few comparisons to Apple’s Mac market share and Dell, HP, or whatever else is left. There’s also few comparisons of different segments of market share; home vs. office, industrial vs. commercial vs. personal vs. education. Hardly anyone talks about profit share.

Overall, despite the occasional rags by Windows apologists, Apple and the Mac are quite healthy. No, Microsoft isn’t dead, maybe not even dying, but it’s certainly a sick beast.

I am writing this as east coast states are reporting Super Tuesday returns. I suppose what we are looking at here is akin to discussing the expectations of Huckabee or Romney in Arizona. Yeah, because they are going to go with someone other than their own senator. The point is that most people who make the Dumbass list talking about such things as market share are looking at who wins the nomination. Perhaps it is even like judging someone’s race for the California Assembly on that candidate’s chances of being elected to the U.S. Senate.

I read something this morning that said Mac market share for consumers is over 20%. Obviously, it’s much less for business use. Why is market share so important? Couldn’t Apple improve market share simply by reducing prices?

Apple could, in theory, increase market share by lowering prices, but it would need to do it cautiously, perhaps $50 to $100 per unit on computers, and probably during a refresh cycle, working from the base models upward. The question is this: can Apple do that and get enough market share to offset the reduced profit margin? As with any publicly held company in the U.S., Apple is beholden to shareholders to maximize shareholder value.

I would love to have a reference (link or whatever) to where you saw that, if you can remember.

Andrew Purvis - 01 April 2008 11:53 PM

I would love to have a reference (link or whatever) to where you saw that, if you can remember.

Andrew, I’m pulling down the late night duty. I saw the same article earlier today. While the number seems a little high, it is still just a segment-- consumer.

Click Here for the Fortune Magazine article.

I suspect Apple will only move for market share over profits very slowly. After all, they’re increasing Mac market share like crazy now and Apple has the highest profit margins in the industry.

Benny Logan - 01 April 2008 04:01 PM

I read something this morning that said Mac market share for consumers is over 20%. Obviously, it’s much less for business use. Why is market share so important? Couldn’t Apple improve market share simply by reducing prices?

What’s interesting about that is that it’s a ‘number’, only one of which that carries importance. For example, let’s say that Obama leads McCain in the national polls. So what? What counts is Electoral College votes, which come on a state-by-state basis, which makes a national poll almost meaningless (handy for predicting very general trends). Why not a poll on each state instead? Too much work?

As for Apple’s ‘market share’ numbers, it’s just one measurement. Even more important is gross profit margin and, perhaps, a ‘profit share’ measurement. Apple’s market share is, say, 10-percent, while Dell’s is 45-percent, yet Apple has more profit. So, why doesn’t the media report that Apple is #1 in ‘profit share?’

Numbers can be fun. For awhile.

The number that I find most telling is the growth rate.  Apple has sales growth of 32%, whereas the next closest is 15%.  I think that is a very telling number.

BunsenHoneydew - 20 April 2008 11:06 AM

The number that I find most telling is the growth rate.  Apple has sales growth of 32%, whereas the next closest is 15%.  I think that is a very telling number.

Amen, and look at Apple’s recent financial performance. The only ‘dog’ in the line is the iPhone which didn’t hit the 2.5-million mark in the quarter to match the 10-million rate for 2008. Still, not bad. More remarkable may be the skew in younger Mac buyers. High school and college and young upwardly mobile adults are buying Macs over Windows PCs. That bodes well for the future. Once IT begins managing more Macs we’ll see some serious market share gains.

I’m doing my part. Just got a new 3 gigger, 24 inch iMac.

Yep I agree and once Apple really starts to get in Enterprise look out.

I know this is an old thread but I read recently that Apple’s market share in the U.S., especially among notebooks, was over 60% of retail (as in ‘non business’) sales on machines above $1,000.

Market share is only one metric but I see so many MacBooks/Pro models these days and everyone who switched says they wished they’d done it a few years ago.

Yeah I think the tipping point has been reached...their sales are exploding when everyone else is basically static.