Mac OS X Market share, falling?

[thealexweb]

I was browsing today and found this, http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-daily-20080701-20090413. It shows Mac OS X's market share at 6.13% in July 2008 but by April it had halved to around 3.74%. Taking in account a margin of area on both figures there is a very clear picture been painted by Stat Counter. Macs market share is falling. Knowing what forum I've posted this in I have a hunch what reception this is going to get.

[Nemo Live]

These tracking website stats I take with a grain of salt because they aren't verifiable and are based on web browsing habits. NetApps which is skewed towards North American websites indicates differently and they say OSX is up to 9.8% in March. The only true measure of "market-share" is by unit sales. The flood of Netbooks and the economy could be assignable causes for their downturn.

Btw, I love that avatar. Brings back memories.

[majortom1981]

I would think apples market share would decline in todays economy due to pc's having cheaper prices then apple computers. Once the economy comes back then i excpect them to gain market share again.

[NeoXY]

-shugg-. Less market share, less virus, bugs and exploits because people just can't care less. There is already a pretty good ecosystem of software for that 3%. So as a user, it really doesn't concern me.

[thealexweb]

Btw, I love that avatar. Brings back memories.

Thanks, I look forward to the day AOL brings it back.

Also I heard a good quote from someone talking about a MacBook, they'd been shown one of good specs about ?2000. They said it's like buying your first car you have to get a small loan to get it. Apple bringing us back to past when families would have to scrimp together to buy their first computer.

[Kirkburn]

A very rough estimate from a big website I know gives me an increase from about 4.5% to 5.5% over the same period. The site is almost entirely independent of OS platform. So, I wouldn't take the above results as gospel.

[thealexweb]

A very rough estimate from a big website I know gives me an increase from about 4.5% to 5.5% over the same period. The site is almost entirely independent of OS platform. So, I wouldn't take the above results as gospel.

No link = poor argument.

[cabron]

Apple Market share failing? in what World does anyone live to believe in that crap? Apple is growing slowly, but stronger!

[thealexweb]

Apple Market share failing? in what World does anyone live to believe in that crap? Apple is growing slowly, but stronger!

You seem to be living in a fantasy world, your argument is built on people's perceptions, you think Apple is completely immune to anything. I think that this 3% drop in market share is slighty exaggerated but it certainly a drop. This can be the MacBook's price is very vulnerable during a recession and people just buy cheap PCs instead, this is why MacBook sales have stalled.

[cabron]

You seem to be living in a fantasy world, your argument is built on people's perceptions, you think Apple is completely immune to anything. I think that this 3% drop in market share is slighty exaggerated but it certainly a drop. This can be the MacBook's price is very vulnerable during a recession and people just buy cheap PCs instead, this is why MacBook sales have stalled.

But who the hell said that Apple market share drop 3%? What a crap is that? here is the truth Mr. Smart?

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-...re.aspx?qprid=8

[Nemo Live]

But who the hell said that Apple market share drop 3%? What a crap is that? here is the truth Mr. Smart?

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-...re.aspx?qprid=8

By unit sales Mac's are around ~3.2% global market share according to their last reported figures. It's of course higher if you narrow the sample to North America which is in line with the Net Apps' data you cited. (2.5millions macs sold out of 77million units sold worldwide).

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2339029,00.asp

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/21results.html

[PyX]

I wouldn't believe that website :p

The market share is at least 6%, it wouldn't fall like that.

And how come "some days in a month", the market share goes at like 6%, and other days it drops to 3%? Such variation is impossible.

In economic crisis. the worst that could happen is that the market share stays, it would never go down. People selling Macs during an economic crisis to buy a brand new PC? Nope.

[Subject Delta]

But who the hell said that Apple market share drop 3%? What a crap is that? here is the truth Mr. Smart?

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-...re.aspx?qprid=8

A 3% drop may not be accurate, but if you pull yourself from the RDF and look at your reality, you will see the simple fact that Expensive computers (when there are cheaper and equally functional ones on the market) plus a recession = bad.

If apple don't think smart like everyone else, they will suffer. They actually INCREASED the prices of most of their computers recently, not a clever move.

[cabron]

A 3% drop may not be accurate, but if you pull yourself from the RDF and look at your reality, you will see the simple fact that Expensive computers (when there are cheaper and equally functional ones on the market) plus a recession = bad.

If apple don't think smart like everyone else, they will suffer. They actually INCREASED the prices of most of their computers recently, not a clever move.

They are more expensive because they provide quality and give you more for the buck than a garbage PC with Windows can provide.

[VMIT]

They are more expensive because they provide quality and give you more for the buck than a garbage PC with Windows can provide.

That's a BS statement. For the love. Look at all the Apple products that have been taken apart and priced. WAAAYYYY overcharging the customer. Apple uses some of the same parts that a PC does as well.

[Nemo Live]

That's a BS statement. For the love. Look at all the Apple products that have been taken apart and priced. WAAAYYYY overcharging the customer. Apple uses some of the same parts that a PC does as well.

Blasphemy! Don't you know that every Apple product is birthed in Steve Jobs' private chambers hidden away in Guangdong Province, PRC.

I remember that same load of crap being preached before they switched to the Windows model and went with Intel x86. Some of my favorites were along the lines of "PowerPC proc's are generations ahead of that POS garbage commodity Wintel crap". :p

[ienhz]

They are more expensive because they provide quality and give you more for the buck than a garbage PC with Windows can provide.

Haha more stupid, garbage posts from cabron. Suprise, suprise.

My MADE IN JAPAN Sony VAIO with WINDOWS on it surely must be inferior to a beautiful piece of Apple machinery built in the fine province of Guangdong, China (hey, that's where my $400 ASUS netbook is built too!).

The perfect Apple customer right here folks.

[Alley Cat]

Tracking websites' accuracy is poor.

I love my iMAC, the tech support department is a little nutty. I swear by Apple

Only issue I have is Steve Jobs, et al, wants Apple to be a premium brand, the software and hardware prices need to come down. The simcity money cheat still dont work on my debit cards and no lottery winnings.

[the evn show]

Dell can go up or down 5% of global market share in as little as 3 months (they account for 25-30%). It's easy to dream up a situation where year-over-year market share drops by 50% when you're dealing with a company of Apple's size.

I'm less convinced that a year-over-year install-base could drop that much that quickly and it'd be a pretty strange set of circumstances:

• Half of all mac users toss out their computers and never return to the web (was 60m mac users of 1b computer users, no only 30m mac users)
  
• Mac users remain unchanged but the number of non-mac users doubles (was 60m mac users of 1b computer users. Now 2b computer users).
  

Simple migration of mac users to non-macs even at a rate of 1 in 4 wouldn't account for that sort of change (unless the number of computer users increased 50% during the same time frame).

All of this is assuming that assuming that any given computer user will own a system for longer than 1 year.

We have reasonably accurate market share numbers which contradict your graph. I'm more inclined to think you've got a sampling error, poor methodology (or method change) or some other issue with this specific site than either of the above outlandish scenarios have happened.

It's also worth pointing out that other sources (see link earlier in the thread) that use a similar method don't report nearly the decrease this one does. Inconsistent stats should be viewed with suspicion.

If apple don't think smart like everyone else, they will suffer. They actually INCREASED the prices of most of their computers recently, not a clever move.

Quarter ending December was up year-over-year. Next set of numbers are due in a few weeks.

If profits are up it was the right move. Unit sales and market share may be down but that's going to be true of most firms (well unit-sales anyway) and that wouldn't be enough data to mark a trend anyway.

If Apple's unit sales are down by more than their nearest competitors (IBM & Acer) there's reason to take notice but not really cause for concern. If that happens again for another 3-6 months we'd have a trend and I'd be very interested about the state of Apple's consumer gismo business when making stock-purchasing decisions because you'd know the computer-bits business is in decline. Ultimately the question would be "Is the computer business viable for Apple" and I think so long as they can claim 30%+ margins even a 1% market share would be worth chasing.

[thealexweb]

But who the hell said that Apple market share drop 3%? What a crap is that? here is the truth Mr. Smart?

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-...re.aspx?qprid=8

Well we've both posted a website how are we to know yours is the correct one. Answer, we don't. Once again people that are scared at the first sign of something bad been said about Apple.

[Macalicious]

And?

Unless you're going to use marketshare as a lynch pin for an argument - where you have to prove that one has a direction relationship with the other, its all meaningless hand waving.

[Quillz]

Apple hardly had any market share to drop in the first place.

Does it really even matter to you? I seriously doubt you'd able to somehow separate 3% from 6%... People who honestly believed that Mac OS X would ever make even a serious dent in Windows market share are heavily blinded by RDF...

They are more expensive because they provide quality and give you more for the buck than a garbage PC with Windows can provide.

Uh... no.

Why is it that obvious fanboys always have to regurgitate direct lines from Apple's marketing?

[Kirkburn]

No link = poor argument.

Hardly - I know what stats I see. I can't give you a link because it's internal data for a top 300 website.

My point is merely that whatever that website says, mine says different - and in fact sees an increase.

[_Wintermute_]

Inaccurate info posted in the Apple section purely to stir up conflict. OP even admits to this.

Topic rated down accordingly, as well as OP.

[thealexweb]

Inaccurate info posted in the Apple section purely to stir up conflict. OP even admits to this.

Yeh just keep dreaming la la la everyone else is wrong.