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Apple unfazed by Windows 7 launch, says Analyst

The launch of Windows 7 on October 22 is unlikely to cause any significant damage to Mac sales, according to Wall Street analyst Brian Marshall of Broadpoint AmTech.

Marshall came to this conclusion by analysing the impact of previous Windows launches on Mac sales. In his study, he compared the sales trends of Macintosh computers around the times of the launches of Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

In every case, except for the launch of Windows 2000, Marshall found that Mac sales either remained stable or in fact increased. Upon the launch of Windows Vista, Mac sales increased by a higher percentage than after any other Windows launch to date.

Marshall attributes Apple's stability to its size, which allows it to run unharmed by the impacts of larger players. "As they get bigger over time", Marshall continued, "that will change, however". A market share of 10% is likely to be the turning point for Apple where sales will be impacted by large product launches from competitors, according to the analyst.

While this might all seem like speculation, Marshall is a highly respected analyst on Wall Street and is noted for correctly predicting Apple's return to historical growth levels in the previous quarter of 2009. This further indicates Apple's resilience to the same market trends having significant impacts on growth in other computer technology companies at this time.

He predicts that Apple will soon release growth figures that show an increase in sales of 7% in the July to September quarter compared with the same time last year.

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