Apple to dominate in the american household by 2013

[rogerinlondon]

And if Apple was just worried about making a product "we use and enjoy" and not worried about market share, people would not be investing in them. Apple is a company. A business entity. Apple is not your friend. Apple is there to make money regardless of whether you like it not. There were a lot of bad decisions in their past and Jobs has the company turned around and making some great progress.

If you want him to focus on making you happy and not making machines and software that appeal to the masses, I'm sure he'd be happy to throw all his money away and tinker on a one off product in his garage.

The iPod exsist to make money, not be cool. Same for the iPhone, and every other device. They just happen to put out products that do appeal to a wide range of people including and image appeals to a lot of upper class people.

I they didn't care about marketshare an fell from 8%(Is that the current figure?) to 3%, they'd probably lose a lot of money which in turn drives R&D and allows them to put out new products. Who cares about market share? Apple cares about market share.

The thread on Apple's marketshare:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116257

Why should we as consumers worry about what market share they have? As long as I like their products, I will buy them. That does not mean that I believe that Apples main goal is just to make products that I and only I like. They do not need to be my friend. If somone else has a product I like better, I will buy that.

They are a corporation and they are all about making profits. I do however think that they are not mainly about market share growth (which is different). If they were, they would have slashed prices to sell more products a long time ago. They are making their profit from a brand that still has a expensive quality image and they are not a massmarket brand, focused on market share as Dell and they probably never will be although their total market share certainly can and will be bigger than it is to day.

That was the pont I was trying to make.

 

[Discerptor]

Roger, I find this entire tangent you started irrelevant when you consider that the thread is about "domination of the American household," not "Do we like Apple?"

 

[rogerinlondon]

Fine by me. I just thought the issue of focus on market share was relevant in a thread that discusses if Apple will dominate households in the future.

 

[WolfsBane]

That market share figure is old history, and outdated. With the decision to move to Intel CPU chips and the ability to run both Windows and Mac OS on their machines, Apple has steadily increased that market share, and the trend continues to date. And it has helped them tremendously the fact that they moved to OS X, and this OS has come of age. The only place where this trend has not accelerated has been in the business sector where a lot of business managers and corporate decision makers are still opting to stick with windows because of the prevalence of business applications and the fact that they can set up something like Windows Server 2003, (which theoretically saves them money on licenses), on an el cheapo Thin Client or terminal emulator system. But even in the business sector, Macs are making inroads. You would be very surprised to know the number of Software Developers, Network Administrators, and Web Developers that use Macs to develop or maintain software or applications intended for Windows end users or to support network infrastructures. People are slowly wising up to the fact that an el cheapo Dell or HP is not all what they cranked it up to be... specially on a Windows based environment, though admittedly, Vista has been a big factor in this trend because when it came on the scene and when Redmond decided to start their "genuine product" verification initiative, it gave a lot of people a reason to look elsewhere... something they may not have considered doing before.

 

[Wman]

Yeah, you are right. Only about 10% of people have macs...

Yah. Thats different in coplleges. I think apple dominates the student market (esecially in notebooks), but not in normal households.

 

[Village Idiot]

That market share figure is old history, and outdated. With the decision to move to Intel CPU chips and the ability to run both Windows and Mac OS on their machines, Apple has steadily increased that market share, and the trend continues to date. And it has helped them tremendously the fact that they moved to OS X, and this OS has come of age. The only place where this trend has not accelerated has been in the business sector where a lot of business managers and corporate decision makers are still opting to stick with windows because of the prevalence of business applications and the fact that they can set up something like Windows Server 2003, (which theoretically saves them money on licenses), on an el cheapo Thin Client or terminal emulator system. But even in the business sector, Macs are making inroads. You would be very surprised to know the number of Software Developers, Network Administrators, and Web Developers that use Macs to develop or maintain software or applications intended for Windows end users or to support network infrastructures. People are slowly wising up to the fact that an el cheapo Dell or HP is not all what they cranked it up to be... specially on a Windows based environment, though admittedly, Vista has been a big factor in this trend because when it came on the scene and when Redmond decided to start their "genuine product" verification initiative, it gave a lot of people a reason to look elsewhere... something they may not have considered doing before.

As I stated in the other thread, they're never going to pull off a big part of the business world unless they start offering services or having companies that do service for them.

Those "el cheapos" aren't very cheap. We had 2 EMC FC4700's with the addons and about 20 100gb-200gb drives in each.

They have one on ebay with the add on an 10 75gb drives going for 12000. They're probably 7-8 years old now. I believe our setup for two of those on our SAN was about $250,000. That's not including the 5 Dell servers and the maintenance plans that were costing tens of thousands a year.

And this was only for a project for about fifty people to have an isolated network for the data that needed processing.

A company will spend the money. Prices don't matter as much when you're talking corporate dollars. Not having the services or hardware is what's stopping Apple from being a major player in the business world.

 

[Village Idiot]

Why should we as consumers worry about what market share they have?

Because a company that is not doing well or has a small market share is not going to draw interest from investors. If the company can provide all the money they need without requiring investments, then more power to them, but that's not the case here.

If Apple would have been an extremely small time one off computer manufacture, then Microsoft would have never looked their way, let alone contribute a good chunk of money to buying shares in the company to help them out.

 

[rogerinlondon]

Because a company that is not doing well or has a small market share is not going to draw interest from investors. If the company can provide all the money they need without requiring investments, then more power to them, but that's not the case here.

If Apple would have been an extremely small time one off computer manufacture, then Microsoft would have never looked their way, let alone contribute a good chunk of money to buying shares in the company to help them out.

When was the last time Apple made a rights issue to fund their expansion? And they have not paid any dividends to their investors since 1995.

 

[Village Idiot]

remember this?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cyberspace/july-dec97/apple_8-6a.html

This is why it's important for companies to worry about business, stats, and market share.

 

[rogerinlondon]

remember this?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cyberspace/july-dec97/apple_8-6a.html

This is why it's important for companies to worry about business, stats, and market share.

Sure, 11 years ago they were almost going out of business (partially as I recall it by trying to prusue some type of massmarket strategy). But they are not there today and their success since then has been built on a excelusive brand with high-margin products and I still think that Apple has put more priority on profit than market share growth.

You might have slightly misunderstood what I meant, but high profit (which is what companies at the end of the day should be after) does not necessarily come from having the highest market share, or the highest growth in market share. There are plenty more parameters that decide that.

 

[Discerptor]

That's all fine and dandy, but high market share is necessary for "domination" of the American household.

 

[rogerinlondon]

That is absolutely right, which is why it is not likely to happen!

 

[louishen]

Right back on thread

I think Apple will continue to gain share - especially at the mid to upper level of the market - leaving the dregs for other companies to fight over.

THis is a good thing, but Apple will IMHO become a significant player but not dominate as such. AS long as it can remain a company of innovation then it will keep a significant share, but it is not Apples game play to dominate the whole market, but they will be happy to dominate the high margin part.

This will benefit us all, Microsoft, with its Vista debacle, has realised it can no longer just release a product and expect customers to flock to it without question. The success of the Mac is a wake up call to MS, because, not only has Vista made very slow progress in the consumer market, which Apple is targeting, but is also being shunned by business (where microsoft is much more dominant)

Apple will ride out this recession by plowing money in to R&D and new products, ready for the post recession market (they have enough money and are still making high profits)

Microsoft I am not so sure of, Business will not be rushing to buy loads of Vista ready hardware, even where they do they will be tempted to backtrack to XP. - especially in a downturn. With less money comming in from their OS (unless they relent and continue to sell XP), and more losses from the Zune and Xbox, the MS business strategy is not looking as good.

That said, Apple is on the rise, but MS is not going to just lie down, but might take a long while to steer a new course.

That's what I think

 

[stevenyc]

Microsoft I am not so sure of, Business will not be rushing to buy loads of Vista ready hardware, even where they do they will be tempted to backtrack to XP. - especially in a downturn. With less money comming in from their OS (unless they relent and continue to sell XP), and more losses from the Zune and Xbox, the MS business strategy is not looking as good.

You're kidding, right?

"Microsoft Thursday announced it has topped US$60 billion in yearly revenue for the first time in its history and posted a 25% year-over-year gain in net income for its fiscal year 2008."

 

[macgig]

apple should start an in home mac help service, geeks on call but for macs. that would be cool.

id be applying for a job

 

[Discerptor]

That is absolutely right, which is why it is not likely to happen!

Wait... then when did we disagree on anything? ><; You confound me.

Right back on thread

I think Apple will continue to gain share - especially at the mid to upper level of the market - leaving the dregs for other companies to fight over.

THis is a good thing, but Apple will IMHO become a significant player but not dominate as such. AS long as it can remain a company of innovation then it will keep a significant share, but it is not Apples game play to dominate the whole market, but they will be happy to dominate the high margin part.

This will benefit us all, Microsoft, with its Vista debacle, has realised it can no longer just release a product and expect customers to flock to it without question. The success of the Mac is a wake up call to MS, because, not only has Vista made very slow progress in the consumer market, which Apple is targeting, but is also being shunned by business (where microsoft is much more dominant)

Apple will ride out this recession by plowing money in to R&D and new products, ready for the post recession market (they have enough money and are still making high profits)

Microsoft I am not so sure of, Business will not be rushing to buy loads of Vista ready hardware, even where they do they will be tempted to backtrack to XP. - especially in a downturn. With less money comming in from their OS (unless they relent and continue to sell XP), and more losses from the Zune and Xbox, the MS business strategy is not looking as good.

That said, Apple is on the rise, but MS is not going to just lie down, but might take a long while to steer a new course.

That's what I think

I agree with most of this, but Microsoft hapens to be growing quite nicely in revenue, and adoption of Vista has been happening at a completely unprecednted rate in the Windows world. Also, the Xbox happens to be quite lucrative at this time... while the first machine gave them a net loss, the 360 looks to have taken advantage for the name Microsoft created for themselves quite nicely, especially with the PS3 doing as abysmally as it has been. I do, however, see Microsoft investing a lot more in web-based software, given their recent antagonising of Google and virtual hard-on for Yahoo.

 

[rogerinlondon]

Wait... then when did we disagree on anything? ><; You confound me.

Not sure if we disagree or not. Do you think that Apple will dominate the household gadgets and do you think their overall goal is to grow their market share at all costs? If you say yes to that, we disagree, otherwise not.

 

[natenmaste]

Spot the dell ^. And recent firgures show that macs are still only about 15% of the market, students are more inclined towards macs for some reason in my experiance.

maybe because apple gives free ipods too any purchase of apple computer for college