Apple continues to excel in the UK and Europe, growing sales at a significantly faster rate than the industry average. New data from the analysts at IDC shows the company continues to make gains. "In the UK and Western Europe, Apple shipment growths outperformed the overall PC market in both notebook and desktop form factors in Q1 2006," observed IDC senior research analyst Michael Larner.
Apple notebooks drive UK sales boom
Apple held a first quarter market share of 2.9 per cent in the UK overall, when desktop and notebook sales are combined. Individually, it took 3.4 per cent of the UK market for notebooks and grabbed 2.65 per cent of the desktop market. This 3.4 per cent market share of UK notebook sales is a 50.15 per cent year-on-year improvement for the company, the analysts said. That's far ahead of the industry average, which saw 20.44 per cent improvement in the period.
Mac desktop sales rise as industry stagnates
Apple also grew its desktop sales by 27.38 per cent, year on year. While this delivered only a 2.65 per cent market share, other vendors fared far worse in desktop sales - the overall value of the desktop computer market fell 6.16 per cent year on year, IDC said.
In Western Europe, Apple holds 2.6 per cent of the desktop market and 2.5 per cent of the notebook market. In unit sales that's up 11.7 per cent and 18.3 per cent, year on year. Meanwhile the overall EMEA market climbed only 1.8 per cent and 2 per cent, leaving Apple rising at a much faster rate than the rest of the PC pack.
Specific markets explained
Inevitably, pan-industry shipment figures offer a slanted picture of the true extent of Apple's success. Critics of such figures point out that they include server shipments and also large installations of corporate PCs, which are used only for specific purposes. Given Apple's limited presence in the corporate markets, market share figures will always be set against the company.
Macworld UK asked IDC research director Karine Paoli to offer her observations about the markets Apple targets. She's optimistic for the company.
"Apple is certainly doing well at the moment across our region," she explained. "The company has been able to not only leverage from the momentum created around the iPod, but also from a good go-to-market strategy: refreshed products, price-positioning, and improvements in its supply chain with more use of its two-tier distribution channel to reach a wider market," she said.
Macs define education, graphics, media markets
Apple also remains strong in education, graphics and media markets, she remarked. Notebooks remain the secret sauce: "The refresh of Apple's product lines, in particular in the notebook space, along with the move to Intel processors should help drive continued expansion throughout 2006, in both the consumer and business space," she remarked.
Clearly as growth rates across the industry decline, maintaining its lead won't be an easy ride for Apple, she warned: "It faces fierce competition from all other players, as the market is intensively competitive at the moment and we do not see this softening in the second half of the year," she warned.
News source: Macworld UK
Apple notebooks drive UK sales boom
Apple held a first quarter market share of 2.9 per cent in the UK overall, when desktop and notebook sales are combined. Individually, it took 3.4 per cent of the UK market for notebooks and grabbed 2.65 per cent of the desktop market. This 3.4 per cent market share of UK notebook sales is a 50.15 per cent year-on-year improvement for the company, the analysts said. That's far ahead of the industry average, which saw 20.44 per cent improvement in the period.
Mac desktop sales rise as industry stagnates
Apple also grew its desktop sales by 27.38 per cent, year on year. While this delivered only a 2.65 per cent market share, other vendors fared far worse in desktop sales - the overall value of the desktop computer market fell 6.16 per cent year on year, IDC said.
In Western Europe, Apple holds 2.6 per cent of the desktop market and 2.5 per cent of the notebook market. In unit sales that's up 11.7 per cent and 18.3 per cent, year on year. Meanwhile the overall EMEA market climbed only 1.8 per cent and 2 per cent, leaving Apple rising at a much faster rate than the rest of the PC pack.
Specific markets explained
Inevitably, pan-industry shipment figures offer a slanted picture of the true extent of Apple's success. Critics of such figures point out that they include server shipments and also large installations of corporate PCs, which are used only for specific purposes. Given Apple's limited presence in the corporate markets, market share figures will always be set against the company.
Macworld UK asked IDC research director Karine Paoli to offer her observations about the markets Apple targets. She's optimistic for the company.
"Apple is certainly doing well at the moment across our region," she explained. "The company has been able to not only leverage from the momentum created around the iPod, but also from a good go-to-market strategy: refreshed products, price-positioning, and improvements in its supply chain with more use of its two-tier distribution channel to reach a wider market," she said.
Macs define education, graphics, media markets
Apple also remains strong in education, graphics and media markets, she remarked. Notebooks remain the secret sauce: "The refresh of Apple's product lines, in particular in the notebook space, along with the move to Intel processors should help drive continued expansion throughout 2006, in both the consumer and business space," she remarked.
Clearly as growth rates across the industry decline, maintaining its lead won't be an easy ride for Apple, she warned: "It faces fierce competition from all other players, as the market is intensively competitive at the moment and we do not see this softening in the second half of the year," she warned.
News source: Macworld UK
so a 1% increase!
50% growth is huge, regardless of size. It all adds up.
so a 1% increase!
Erm...no, a 50% increase, but it's 1% more.
I still see their biggest problem as being a lack of a game development platform for OSX... Windows thrived because of DirectX and Apple has shown no interest in producing even a basic comparable product, instead supporting the seemingly dying OpenGL. I would like to see OSX opened to the general PC market so that Microsoft has some decent competition and the market will benefit.
You can accept that there are people who actually might prefer OSX over Windows, right?
"seemingly dying OpenGL?"
Well, the majority of creative applications from cad programs, animation programs, etc etc use OpenGL. Almost all game consoles even portables use some kind of OpenGL, mobile phones with gpu's use opengl, many gui toolkits have OpenGL backends, java 3D programming is opengl, etc, etc etc.... Actually, you only see DX in the microsoft ecosystem (windows and the xbo
so a 1% increase!
Erm...no, a 50% increase, but it's 1% more.
its a increase of 1% in market share is what i meant
the point im getting across is 50% of 2% is quite insignificant, when compared with 50% of 25%, for example.
so a 1% increase!
Erm...no, a 50% increase, but it's 1% more.
its a increase of 1% in market share is what i meant
the point im getting across is 50% of 2% is quite insignificant, when compared with 50% of 25%, for example.
And what's the marketshare percentage of Acer laptops? I wish people would figure out this marketshare bull****. Apple make hardware, so in order to have an accurate comparison, they must be compared to each individual hardware company, not as an "Us-against-them" Apple versus PC mentality. It's quite possible to have a 2% marketshare and still be profitable in the big picture. I doubt you'll grasp that concept though.
I read somewhere that Apple is the 5th largest computer brand. The thing is that the "PC" sector is so fragmented that Apple only needs to gain a percentage or two in total marketshare to move up one in that list.
didnt they have higher market share in their past tho?
didnt they have higher market share in their past tho?
Back in the day, almost every school in my area ran Mac SEs. Later on, the got iMacs. My high school uses dells though.
There's a difference between the UK and Europe? Last time I checked the UK is a part of both Europe and the European Union. :p
I'd rather have government in the UK run from westminster, rather then Brussels
That completely misses the point! I would like to see OSX having a native gaming solution and for active development of that, even if it remains closed off from running on general PCs. Having to buy two operating systems just increases the complexity and cost of the situation - what user would choose an OS for browsing the internet and then have to emulate or reboot into another to play games? No novice user would do that and it would be far simpler just to use Windows and avoid Mac altogether, keeping down costs.
Allowing users to run Windows alongside OSX doesn't help Apple's marketshare, in fact if it becomes a popular solution then it will just increase Microsoft's as now people that used to buy OSX not buy Windows as well. Apple should make a fork for use as a fork, not allow you to glue on a fork to a spoon.
Right now we cannot really compare desktop towers but if you look at the laptop market, you are only going to save about 300 dollars over a MBP. Depending on your software needs, you will pay more for the PC laptop after you add multimedia software even when comparing against the cheapest option and if you add security software for windows the price goes through the roof.
In reality, MBPs are on the cheap end of the middle of the price ranges being beat out by the likes of Dell. If you were to compare with Toshiba, Lenovo or Sony they would all come out costing more than Apples offerings on hardware and a basic OS alone.
I challenge you to find cheaper "all in one" options with a similar spec to the iMac. You won't find any. The same thing goes for the mini form factor.
I paid $700 for a machine. Comparible specs to an iMac (although not quite as good), and I've paid $0 for security software and have had 0 downtime. Why? Because there is plenty of free software for protection, and with the proper setup (i.e. not giving a newbie admin privilages) I've never had a problem.
Such as? I haven't see a PC laptop that doesn't have equivilent software to OS X.
iMovie = Windows Movie Maker
iPhoto = Paint.net
iTunes = WMP
iDVD = Nero (supplied with most laptops I've seen) or equivilent
The only thing missing is a garage band equivilent. (Although only a small percentage of people would likely care)
Weren't you just talking about false economics? You know how much it costs to be protected: $0. I often find the free software is better than the commerical stuff anyways.
Given the fact that I debunked (or at least violently rattled) your previous comments, could you explain that again?
Shuttle PC.
hahaha, glad to be of service!
im sorry i dont see your logic. if anything, there is really no reason not to get a mac now that you can run both major OS's on the market seeing as how macs are the only ones that can do that. I don't see why it would hurt apples marketshare (especially given that apple is a hardware company, microsoft is software).
besides, if people dont like the complexity and go with a pc, chances are they would have done so anyways.
i cant see anyone in their right mind switching away from a computer that can do mac and windows to a machine that can only do windows.
There is a reason not to... the price is greater (firstly the hardware, secondly buying a second OS), it's a lot more hassle and effort (completely unreasonable for a novice user and probably most average users) and you'll be switching back and forth constantly when you could just use Windows.
By the same logic I can't see anyone using two operating systems when Windows will do just fine... you logic is flawed. Why would I want two watches, when one can do what the other does and more (though maybe not as stylishly). Apple either needs to make it a truely competing platform, which means, amongst other things, supporting games and aiding their development (like Microsoft did with DX), or go for a completely different user group. They tried that with the graphic design sector but now that has been erroded as there is little to distinguish Windows from OSX (don't get me wrong, OSX is way ahead in technology and security).
I don't see why you're trying to defend Apple's position as it just isn't working - if it wasn't for the iPod then they wouldn't even have the market share increase they have now. I want Apple to succeed and am suggesting what I think would help.
Apple is slightly less insignificant than it previously was. Anyone who actually wants functionalty from their computer still buy's a PC.
Yeah, but that means that it isn't always clear who you are quoting, particularly not at a glance.
I hold by my prediction of a couple of years ago that Apple will one day be a dominate force in audio devices and production, but its days as a mainline personal computer producer are coming to an end. When your advocates are getting excited about your market share topping out at 3%, the writing is not only on the wall, it's a billboard.
--h
Would you consider Acer a failure? On the brink of going bankrupt? I wouldn't. They make argueably the nicest laptops in the PC world. Quit thinking of this as Apple versus the world, and think of it in terms of how it really is; a comparison between various computer hardware manufacturers. Apple just happens to package a proprietary OS with their hardware.
Take off those rose-coloured glasses.
Not legally. And I imagine there are a lot of limitations at the current point right now (drivers, OS specific requirements, etc.)
....And I imagine there are a lot of limitations at the current point right now (drivers, OS specific requirements, etc.)
That could apply to running OSx on a PC, or Windows on a Mac.
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