Mac market share in Q1 2009 = 3.36 percent, Apple earnings strong

they said iPod Touch sales were up 100% year on year - thats big.

"There's a weird psychology with Mac fanatics, where they believe every positive bit of news about their favorite platform, and use it all as evidence that Macs will one day rule the world. Well, here's one fact you guys can simply ignore: While overall PC sales jumped a whopping 13 percent year-over-year in January, sales of Mac computers actually dropped 6 percent in the same time period. The reason? The average selling price of a Mac is about $1500, or double the average selling price of a PC. On the good news front for Mac fanatics (i.e., you guys can start paying attention again), revenues on the PC side were flat in January because more and more buyers are turning to low-cost netbook computers. Overall, these numbers won't mean a thing to Mac market share, which is still mired at 3.2 percent worldwide and under 5 percent in the US. Yeah, a couple of other inconvenient truths." Paul Thurrott wininfo-short-takes-week-of-february-23

So Daring Fireball was right when he said that Apple had invented the next big platform: The iPhone/iTouch? Paul, would you agree?

Yep maati, I think that it applies to most expensive wares, even cars. The rich can still afford them, but the less expensive, or entry level luxury models probably aren't selling as well. But buying higher end stuff can sometimes last longer. That's what's said about Macs, but I have the same experience with two expensive, high end Dell laptops. One hat I bought in 2001 [Inspiron 7500] with all the lights, whistles and bells for $3,600, is still running fine. I upgraded to XP, then gave it to my mom. The vid cable in my Inspiron 8200 is loose, but I could have used glue or a glue gun, rather than but my prized $399 ACER laptop. I was happier than Lauren!

John, did you get the Blu-ray?

No, DRWAM, I concluded that I didn't want to spend extra for Blu-ray.

I think there really has not been enough time since the release of the new iPod Shuffle to gauge it's success. As to Apple ever ruling the world. Not what I want. I got my Mac. The rest of you can use what ever you want. The more of you that use PC's the better for us Mac users. I am perfectly happy not being hacker bait.

So, marketshare is up, profits are up. Yah, the lack of that netbook is just KILLING Apple. The PC industry, except for Apple, is in a desperate race to the bottom. Cheaper hardware, lower margins. Volume doesn't help if you don't make any money from it. Microsoft is now in the same trap. To keep unit sales up, they have to accommodate to the the netbook niche. And what does that mean? It means the Zombie-like continuation of Windows XP, because they can sell it cheaply, and that is just bizarre, since they are simultaneously trying to roll out Windows 7 and explain to everyone why they "need" it. And speaking of Vista SP2, uh, I meant to say, Windows 7, the netbook market requires the creation of a lobotomized version of Windows 7, the "Starter Edition", so that Microsoft can sell it cheaply, followed by a bait and switch upgrade strategy. Apple continues a one OS strategy, giving people all the features for one price. Microsoft is now caught with the hardware vendors in the bottom feeding market of "cheaper and cheaper". My god, it's in their ads; it's the whole theme. It's great that Paul gets such solace from the 3.36% "marketshare" number. Yes, there are lots of Windows cash registers out there! Every PC vendor in existence would kill for Apple's numbers, marketshare and all. Moneyshare matters too.

I learn more and more from everyone all the time. Thanks for allow me to be a voyeur. Doc PS John, I didn't think that Blu-ray was a worthwhile upgrade for many too, but some models had it included recently.

Good point and he is right. Apple is first and foremost a hardware company. You got that one right on the money, Real! The comparison between sales from the 2 companies are really meaningless. --tayme

"The company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion." That works out to a whopping "Apple Tax" of 14.8 percent. Wow that's terrible, apple and its employees are really ripping off consumers by working hard, innovating and making a reasonable profit Meanwhile, MS's profit margin was 35.7 percent last quarter (they have not announced this quarter yet). And that's after factoring in the money losing businesses, the margin on windows and office is much higher

"Meanwhile, MS's profit margin was 35.7 percent last quarter (they have not announced this quarter yet). And that's after factoring in the money losing businesses, the margin on windows and office is much higher" o0o0o They must be evil!!! o0o0o overthrow the government! Let the revolution begin!! douchebag.

O0o0o0o I can do math! This shows that I am smart and my statements are meaningful! Yes, what I say is true everyone. douchebag 5x.

Just to be clear, this is proof that Apple's pricing is smart. It's not clear that cutting their prices would result in higher profits, since you'd have to more than make for the lost per-unit profit with increased volume. Since they're clearly running a great business, I think it's reasonable to expect that they're following the market demand closely and weighing the potential of changes to their pricing all the time. So, is there an "Apple Tax"? Not according to their happy customers who are still lining up during the worst economy since the great depression. Again, when the demand really drops off, expect to see price cuts. Not before. That'd just be stupid business and anyone advocating that should recognize it as such. ps. does that mean I'm happy Macs cost more money? no. i wish they were cheaper. Hell, I wish they were free. But I'll still keep buying them because I think they're better even at the higher price.

There is absolutely no doubt Apple makes good products. Apple managed to squeak by this quarter compared to 2008 and 2007. However, the slide in Mac unit sales continues and I believe this is several months of consecutive slide in the Mac unit. Also, Year over Year they were down 3 percent. So Apple is being impacted by the economy. With the number of well off, millionaires, and billionaires in the United States, these guys will continue to go to bat for Apple. Good for them. Yet it doesn't change the word on the street. Consumers with budgets and middle class sensibilities don't want to buy Apple. Its a win for Apple and its a win for the Rest of PC industry. Last I checked, the PC industry is coming of a low and the stage is set for a return to growth. So all of this, Apple's right and the rest of the PC industry is wrong, doesn't match to the data. Dell maybe doing bad, but others are taking its place. HP is in the number one spot is up 2.9 percent world wide. Netbook sales continue to be hot fot the industry. As Intel CEO Paul Otellini said "We believe PC sales bottomed out during the first quarter and that the industry is returning to normal seasonal patterns." HP isn't the only brightspot. Acer is doing very well making with their March 31st sales on Windows based netbooks. Acer virtually tied with Dell and is in a position to take 2nd place away from Dell. That sounds like a competitive market to me. Its tough for everyone, but its not like the PC industry is dead or is going to die tomorrow. Apple in most places is in the 5th spot with consumers. Apple is making progress, but don't count out guys like HP and Acer yet.

"Yet it doesn't change the word on the street. Consumers with budgets and middle class sensibilities don't want to buy Apple." Please link us to data to back that. Please also link us to PC sales minus netbooks. I dont know any corporation that has seriously deployed a netbook. Like someone else said, a netbook competes with a iPhone/iTouch. I personally think netbooks are a fad right now and that the will saturate in 2009. Not go away, they will have their place as a larger form factor iTouch type device, a limited powered/functionality mobile device. If what you say is true and the stage is set for growth then these numbers are even better for Apple because they cover the worst months and go a very long way to disprove you statement about people not choosing Apple, and it says the tax is really something people are willing to pay.

While this particular blog post is remarkably fair and balanced (aside from the inevitable smarmy comment regarding the iPod at the end), it's overshadowed by months of lies, distortions and outright bad reporting: "While overall PC sales jumped a whopping 13 percent year-over-year in January, sales of Mac computers actually dropped 6 percent in the same time period." Nice bit of "truthiness", that. Paul, for someone who consistently slams Wikipedia for their supposed lack of actual facts, it's ironic how often you lack precision and accuracy in your own "reporting". A retraction would be nice. Here's an even better idea: Quit relying on worst-case scenarios from supposed "analysts" and start reporting the truth based on ACTUAL FACTS, not wishful thinking. At the very least, you should report when your sources are A) guessing and B) usually wrong. I'm sure there are some of us who would appreciate that.

"Just to be clear, this is proof that Apple's pricing is smart." Absolutely...just as DELL, Acer and others are smart to dumb down their product line to include XP-based netbooks. In a down economy, there will always be demand for both bargain-basement and high-end products. People who appreciate the build quality, exceptional engineering and the usability & stability of Apple's OS will always be willing to pay a small premium to get it. Those who want commodity products or disposable netbooks that serve a niche purpose and run an aging 7-year-old operating system will support the low end of the market. There's no reason one has to sacrifice for the other, as the numbers clearly prove.

Many consumers are awaiting better economic times before they purchase non-essential items, such as a new computer. Heck, some may even be awaiting Windows 7 before buying. I did that with XP and the Intel Mac Pro Tower. I even waited a little after their release to ensure that there were no significant problems.

lotsa Personal computer sales overall: down 3% Apple personal computer sales: down 3% Non-Apple personal computer sales: down 3% So, Apple sales dropped the same as the rest of the industry. Dell had a bad quarter but those lost sales didn't go to Apple, they went to HP who are the ones who should REALLY be celebrating right now. It'd be interesting to compare HP's sales growth to Macintosh total sales. At least we're spared the quarterly math lessons of how 10% share growth on 3% of the market really doesn't mean the same thing as getting 10% of the market and how much easier or harder it is to get real growth from 3% compared with growth from 96%

@mikegalos - Why do you even care? Your comment is meant as flame bait and you know it. Get over yourself and your blind Microsoft faith. Even you, in all of your Microsoft evangelism, should realize by now that there is room for both companies to succeed and that in all actuality, they sell different products in different markets. --tayme

BTW: I just tried Windows 7 build 7000 (I'm NOT going on to Bittorrent sites with gawd-knows-what for malware just to get the latest leaked build) on an ASUS EeePC 1000HE (the best netbook for $500CDN so far). I liked it. I would personally set up the Origami Experience 2.0 on it if I was using it fulltime, but because it's a beta, that won't happen. If Microsoft comes out with an Origami 3.0 for Windows 7, you can bet that's going to be a good option for netbooks since it gives you a web, RSS, and multimedia overlay for Windows. There's a lot of netbook-class convertible Atom-based UMPC/Tablet PC's coming too so the touch-based stuff in the Origami software would be awesome on those systems.

mikegalos@msn.com said: "Personal computer sales overall: down 3% Apple personal computer sales: down 3% Non-Apple personal computer sales: down 3% So, Apple sales dropped the same as the rest of the industry." But Paul just reported last week: "According to Gartner, worldwide PC sales fell year-over-year by 6.5 percent in the quarter; IDC says the decline was 7.1 percent." Is this not correct? Looks to me that their unit sales were down less than half that of the industry at large. Or am I missing something? (Please note that I don't really give a crap one way or the other - I just like to encourage a modicum of intellectual honesty in these discussions.)

tayme, No. It's meant as a bit of a reality check. Read the comments here and compare the response to numbers that are the same as the average of everyone else in the industry. This is a lot of gloating for quarterly performance that's exactly mediocre.

Webguy The market share numbers went from 3.26 to 3.36%. That's essentially flat. And that means Macintosh did exactly the same as everybody else. No better, no worse. Now, I understand people were afraid there'd be a drop and perhaps are celebrating that didn't happen. Fine.