Mac Market Share is Now 3.86 Percent

And then there is the business perspective: They are really executing exceptionally well in a difficult economic environment,” Ryan Jacob, portfolio manager of Jacob Internet Fund, said in an interview from Los Angeles. Apple is his firm’s largest holding. “Their iPhone sales are tremendous, and there’s every reason to believe these growth numbers will be strong for a long time. There’s no question their business momentum hasn’t subsided at all.”

Five years ago, Apple earned only 20% of what Microsoft did. Based on Apple's earnings today, it looks like Apple will surpass Microsoft's earnings in the next quarter or two. I'm not sure how big of a deal it is to grow market share when you're growing so dramatically on all fronts.

I just love your numbers Paul. So you have "Mac" which is Apple, vs all other vendors that make "PC's" as in personal computers, Dell, HP, Sony, Acer, Toshiba and many others. Why do you lump them all in one? Why not break it out. In the US the "Mac" would have 9.1% and HP would have????? Dell would have ???? You lump them because you try to make this a Microsoft vs Apple thing. Well in that case Microsoft sold 0 PC's, so Apple is ahead of Microsoft by 100%. Apple had an outstanding quarter. Which means so much more considering the Microtards always complain about Mac's costing to much, and in this economy the "PC" sales (all other vendors) have not done as well. However if you break those "PC" sales out into vendors like you do with the "Mac" then you might see that some of them like Acer, did quite well and some others like Dell did not. Acer should take exception with your logic and demand you break them out. While we are talking numbers we should talk stock price, market cap, cash in the bank....all of course compared to the other individual PC makers. It would be really hard to include Microsoft in the conversation since they dont make PC's. The title of this blog post should be "The Apple Tax Myth" considering how well they are doing.

From the event today... "Q: Any thoughts on the economy?" "A: We focus on Apple, and leave everything else to economists." Balmer should do the same, instead of blathering on about the "New Normal".

@GoodThings2Life The consumer market amounts to 30% of computer sales and 4% amounts to 1 in 7. The maths are pretty easy. As for those doing the choosing, conservative types who wouldn't change course unless forced too. Just look at the economy and you can see their collective wisdom.

In view of the layoffs and pay cuts at Microsoft I suppose Paul has to put a positive spin on it. Apple is doing very well.

Ugh. Paul's harping on the 3.86 percent figure is nothing but his regular, pathetic attempt at obfuscation. "Nothing to see here, folks -- nothing to see here." And, really, going to all the effort of making a grand distinction that market share is maybe at 9.1% but, good golly, certainly not 10%! Really ... ? Let's face it folks, Microsoft is in trouble. The New York Times knows it (read the recent article "Forecast for Microsoft: Partly Cloudy" -- "long and winding course toward irrelevance."), and Daniel Lyons take on that article goes further -- why has Microsoft under Balmer let every significant recently evolved market get away from them: search, social networks, music retailing, mp3 hardware, smartphones/moble, movie rentals. They're struggling to play catch-up, pursuing lost causes and having to defend against markets they already own, Windows and Office. Look at share price of Microsoft vs. Apple over the last 8 - 9 years. Apple is up 700%, Google is up 400%, while Microsoft is negative. Apple will release the iTablet next year creating and then dominating yet another market with a device that sports full motion video, color e-ink screen, deals with content providers -- and Microsoft has ... what? Vaporeware? And if Apple TV turns into a gaming console (rumored), with the iTunes Store already in place, there is another threat to Microsoft. Apple is extremely healthy, even in a bad recession, making profitable products that people willingly pay for (so much for those laptop hunter adds); it sells 90% of computers costing more than $1000 (cha-ching). Microsoft, meanwhile, has not been able to break into any new markets. No matter how good Windows 7 may be, it still has to compete with the large share of the installed base Windows XP computers already out there that for many are good enough -- same with Office 10 versus previous versions of Office. Where will Microsoft's derive its future revenue stream?

Apple is #4 in sales of computers (I think?). I believe HP, Dell and Acer are 1, 2 and 3 in that order (Acer may have passed Dell, but not sure). I suspect Apple's earnings are far more than any of those three companies. (I haven't looked it up, so I'm just guessing and am willing to be proved wrong, but I suspect I'm not.) The top 3 are making cheap computers with very small margins, so they need lots of volume to make a profit. But, their sales have been declining this year while Apple's has increased. The only real rise is the netbook market, which is the ultra cheapest you can get with the slimmest margin of all. So why should Apple do any different than they are? People are buying their computers in ever increasing numbers. Apple is making lots of money selling them. They continue to succeed over and over. They don't need to be dominant to succeed, either. However, if MS lost their dominant position, they would very likely be out of business. Maybe Windows 7 will help the PC market and Microsoft. I certainly won't complain if it does well. However, it is clear that it won't hurt Apple either way.

Kinda feels like PT is sour just had to write a negative review Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share. ITS ALL ABOUT Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share Market Share LOL!!!!

You would think that, as a self-professed technology enthusiast, Paul would want to celebrate the success of a company that makes high-end consumer gadgetry, particularly in the face of the worst economy in decades.0 Instead, he puts on his WinJihadist armor and, because they compete with his favorite company (and the one most directly responsible for his income), finds any way he can to be snarky, smarmy, and downright mean. Honestly, Paul, what's your problem? If Apple's market share is so insignificant, why do you even care? You should be grateful that they're out there innovating and helping raise the tide so your precious Microsoft doesn't sink even further into the shallow waters of irrelevancy, staying afloat by sheer inertia. All I can think of is a quote from Buzz Lightyear: "You are a sad, strange little man. And you have my pity".

I sounds like Paul predicted that Apple would sell a broader line of consumer electronics, or Apple listened to his suggestion. Maybe Paul is the reason that for Apple's success. He did write some good reviews about some Apple products. Heck, I would have thought he was an Apple fan boy when I read the Apple TV review. His iPhone review encouraged me to get one [although the wife bought it for me as an anniversary present].

What I would like to see is Apple's sales figures and market share if Microsoft made it impossible to run Windows on a Mac the way Apple prevents PC users from running their OS. Remove the ability of running Windows and see if Apple's sales and market share don't take a nosedive. In fact, every Mac user who loads Windows on their system should also have their system counted in the total of Windows systems sold. Everyone I know that has a recent Mac also runs Windows on it. And most of them are too cheap to buy it and generally 'borrow' a copy or outright steal it from the net. The ability to run Windows on a Mac has probably been the single biggest cause of their increase in sales. Allowing this to happen is one of Microsoft's biggest mistakes. Of course if they did prevent it, they would probably have all kind of legal problems headed their way.

- Cash and short-term marketable securities total $34 billion Macrumors' notes on conference call http://www.macrumors.com/2009/10/19/apple-reports-1-67-billion-prof... Current market cap of Dell, Inc. = $30.04 billion http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:DELL Apple could buy Dell with the cash it has on hand. Which numbers are more important???

"Today's figures are actually dramatic gains." Once again Paul bashes Apple as he points out their excellent qt. Funny in the Bay Area where I live it seems like Macs are far more popular than they are anywhere else, in Peet's Coffee next to a Apple Campus in Cupertino 80% of the laptops are PC's and I'm the sort that notices. I also noticed Mac users are far more pretentious than PC users. So the behavior you see on this blog has always proven true in real life pretty much daily. Considering Paul's a Northeastern liberal and proud of it, that's saying a lot.

"pales in comparison to the 26 percent growth experienced by netbook maker Acer.)" Wow. 26 percent growth because of sub $400 netbooks compared 17 percent growth by a company who's cheapest computer is a grand. Yeah. Just PALES in comparison.

Well, the quarterly reality check is always amusing. Let's see... If we're really generous to Linux and pretend they're up to their long-time goal of 1% of the desktop market, then Windows a little over 95% of the worldwide market. Funny think how just a few days ago we had people on here insisting that Microsoft was doomed since Windows was down in the 80-85% range. Guess we know what orifice^H^H^H^H^H^H^H oracle they got their "facts" from. So we're at the same numbers we've roughly been at for the last 15 years... * Windows ~95% * Mac OS ~4% * Linux ~1% Plus ca change, plus ce le meme chose Well, actually, not really. In 1980 Apple had about 26% share. In 1991 Macintosh was around 20% But those numbers didn't come from the same source Paul's using so it probably isn't fair to say that "Steve Jobs has brought Mac to almost 1/5th of where it was 18 years ago" and since the US vs Worldwide market was much more US skewed back then perhaps we should really say, "Steve Jobs has brought Mac to almost half of where it was 18 years ago". Hard to say. The answer's somewhere in between those two, though. A quick fact to put 4% and 1% in perspective: The percentage of people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked on a sound stage is 6% which is 20% more than the total of Mac and Linux users combined. We now return you to the LOUD AND REDUNDANT sounds of that that <4% whistling past the graveyard of insignificance.

PC sales will rise soon. Three reasons. Normal Holiday sales, the always rise this time of year. Some economists are saying the recession is turning around and there is pent up consumer demand. This demand + the holidays should = a rise. XP hold outs that have needed a new PC for some time now will finally get one after Oct 22, because they HATED Vista. So all three allow for a good bump. I bet a lot of Paul/Mike types will point to these factors and just say, windows 7 was the only reason. However a good comparison would be Fall 2009 vs 2010. Providing things get better recession wise, the fall of 2010 would lose the pent up demand factor and the need to replace the old XP PC and only leave the normal holiday rise in sales.

"We now return you to the LOUD AND REDUNDANT sounds of that that <4% whistling past the graveyard of insignificance." For something so insignificant, you sure seem to spend a lot of time an energy talking about it.

yoshi "For something so insignificant, you sure seem to spend a lot of time an energy talking about it." Only to keep the LOUD NOISE from the <4% from drowning out actual facts. Unfortunately, that takes a LOT of typing since we get things like 90% of Office has been the same for 12 years or that Windows is down to 80% or that Office 2010 files can't be read on earlier version. So, want me to be quiet? Get the LOUD MAC FANS to stop lying.

rr0de I don't tend to buy products based on how much profit the company makes off me. That just seems like a way to encourge being ripped off. (But, if not, I've got some stuff I can sell you that will make MY profit margins really, really high) Now as for your confusion with Erico It is QUITE possible for Apple to have HUGE margins and vastly out of line high prices on Macintosh and still lose money on the line. Remember that it costs the same to develop a computer or an app or a OS that sells 1M units as it does to develop one that sells 20M. The up front costs don't really change when your unit sales and you have to charge much, much more per unit just to break even on the R&D costs (or, in Apple's case since it's a bigger expense - on the Advertising budget)

Satisfaction is far greater with OS X than Windows: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/19/apples_mac_os_x_snow_leopa... All this talk about margins and the like. Look, Windows and PCs are cheap crap. Plain and simple. You get what you pay for when you buy a PC, cheap crap.

@mikegalos: It's amazing you defend a company like Microsoft. Convicted monopolists, liars, thieves and rip-off merchants. I'll give them one thing though, they sure know how to trap dumb people (customers).

"It is QUITE possible for Apple to have HUGE margins and vastly out of line high prices on Macintosh and still lose money on the line." Of course, someone as intelligent as Mike knows that Apple does split out the Macs segment of revenue, profit, margin, etc... in each of its quarterly filings so he KNOWS that Apple IS profitable in its Mac market and has been so since the Internet Bust, but in order to spin some nonsense he will blather on with a few sentences that make no sense hoping you are an idiot that will be confused by his handwaving. "At most, the Mac now has 9.1 percent market share in the US. This figure is obtained, again, by using IDC and Gartner's numbers. However, because I have to also use their numbers for Mac sales, it's a bit less accurate." And, of course, Gartner says U.S. Mac market share for this quarter was 8.8 percent, and IDC says it was 9.4 percent, but Paul likes to do this useless handwaving exercise of averaging two estimates based on distinct methodologies of the entire market and then divide by Apple's reported numbers (without ever attempting to do the same with HP's, Dell's, or Acer's numbers) to end up with some meaningless number that has no statistical relationship with Gartner's estimate of 8.8 or IDC's estimate of 9.4, but he knows with certainty that, at best, it can be 9.1 even though 50% of his sources says that it is definitely higher... based on? His own fantasies.

Excellent math there Paul.. Based on this site, the numbers haven't changed little if at all. http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-weekly-200903-200912 Worldwide Windows XP 72.73% Windows Vista 20.73% Apple 3.83% Linux 0.65% North America Windows XP 58.45% Windows Vista 30.32% Apple 7.99% Linux 0.59%

Love my MacBook Pro that I got this year. no doubt about it. However not exactly bad news for MS, I primarily run Windows on it and I've bought Win 7 Pro to install from tomorrow (UK Postal Workers permitting....). No way I'd have considered a Macbook without windows. I do use OSX on it too but pretty much for itunes and web browsing. The latter being more on account of Apples sub-optimal Windows drivers giving me less run-time on the move and the former being the POS that is itunes for windows.