Why Mac Users Just Love To Say, “I Told You So.”

Remember when owning a Mac meant you had to park down the street, wear a hat, and not make direct eye contact to Windows users? No more.

The Mac is back and it is time to consider the ever popular Gloat Option and say to yourself or anyone else who may listen, “I told you so.”

Yes, there’s some danger in gloating, some danger in saying “I told you so,” and some danger in trying to shave a bobcat in a telephone booth. But if you could pull off the latter without a scratch, wouldn’t that be cause for celebration?

And maybe a little gloating? And perhaps a snickery ‘See, I told you I could do it…”

So it is with the Mac. It’s back and the proof is irrefutable for everyone except White House press secretaries. For a long decade, Mac users endured status as a second class citizen in the computer world. No more.

Gone are the days of 2-percent or 3-percent market share numbers, constantly compared to Windows 95-percent share. If Google is a verb, then Windows is a really nasty cold sore.

Here’s what’s happening and why Mac users are having to learn how to exercise restraint as Windows brethren suffer through PC malady after malady.

We’ve preached true Mac Math at Mac360 for years. Market share numbers, in the general sense, are not valid indicators of what is happening to Mac sales (though, 15-percent overall worldwide share would be nice).

Among others, a new research report from Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research shows the Mac’s market share ranges from 60-percent to 2.7-percent. Start waving your Gloat Towels, someone has seen the light.

Wait. Is that right? 45-percent? No, it’s actually 45.8-percent, but I thought that rounding down would show a little humility. Smart researchers with a penchant for truth, justice, and the Appian Way, have sliced and diced the numbers and the Mac is looking healthy.

Worldwide Mac market share is up about 30-percent in the last year or so. US market share is over 8-percent and growing at a rate of over 30-percent per year. Here’s where the fun begins. Notebooks rule, and Mac notebooks rule absolutely.

Small? Not quite. Notebooks, like any other piece of consumer or business technology, are sold in different market segments. Let’s say, under $1,000 and over $1,000. Bernstein’s bear researchers identify the latter as the Top Price Quintile, where the Mac has a whopping 29.4-percent market share. And growing.

Take out sales of notebooks to business, and just count the typical consumer notebook buyer, and the education market, and the Mac hits 45.8-percent of the Top Price Quintile. That makes the Mac the #1 notebook in the US, asterisks not withstanding. In that market segment, no other notebook manufacturer tops Apple.

As usual, numbers can be good and bad. Apple rules with the Mac in the premium Top Price Quintile (I just love saying “quintile” as if I just came home from my first semester at college). With numbers like that, it’s tougher for the Mac to grow share in that pricey segment. On the other hand, it’s easier to grow share in lower price segments, but expect Apple to do it slowly, rather than, say, tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 PM. Things don’t work that quickly.

Is it time to say, “I told you so?” Yes. It’s time. But let’s remember to show a measure of decorum, taste, and class, and not shout so loudly that Windows PC users continue to hate Mac users but for different reasons. Maybe we Mac users should just get together and all of us say “I told you so” at the same time, just once, and it’s done.

You know, it would be like if all of us flushed our toilets at the exact same time. No one knows what exactly would happen, but it would be cool to find out.

I’m not right about things so often that I’ve ever worn out my “I Told You So” Quota, but this time we’re ready. Mac users have known for a few years, probably since Panther and the first aluminum PowerBooks, that the Mac was on the way back. Now there is numerical proof that goes beyond Apple’s wild profits. It’s news. It’s factual. And it will get better.

Why do Mac users love to think, “I told you so?” Because we can. Let’s practice what we preach and share the “news” with our digitally deprived kin, the Windows PC sufferers of the world. They need us.

Oh, by the way. Is anyone ready for ‘Snow Leopard?’