1. Better computers
Cook stated that the Macintosh is "far superior than to anything else on the market".  He went on to highlight the designs of the iMac and MacBook Air

2. Better software

• Leopard -  He went to state that "virtually everyone agrees that Leopard is far ahead of Vista".
• iLife - "The best digital lifestyle suite on the market"
• iWork - "The absolute best productivity package on the market"

3. Compatibility
"When many people looked at the Mac in the past they were concerned about switching because they were afraid the Mac wouldn't fit in a Windows environment.  We fixed that by including Boot Camp on every single Macintosh we ship, which enables Windows to run natively on the Mac.  Now we also work with third parties on products like Fusion and Parallels which allows the Mac OS and Windows to run side-by-side for that person who wants to run the occasional Windows program."

Cook showed a picture of Windows running on a Mac and then stated, "it sends a shiver up my spine but the fact is it's working.  It's removing the fear just like an insurance policy does whether you use it or not"

Cook the went on to show the following quote from Walt Mossberg:

4. Vista
Cook was quick to call out that it was something "we didn't do".  He indicated that people in the crowd would wonder why Vista is on the list.  He said it was fair to say that "Vista hasn't lived up to everything that Microsoft hoped it would and consequently, its opened doors for a lot of people to consider switching to the Mac."  He then indicated this was beneficial to Apple and quickly called out a quote from Peter Burrows:

5. Marketing
Cook called out the success of the Mac vs. PC ads and stated that the ads "have struck a cord with so many switchers".  He indicated that the ads tell a story which people listen to.  He then show one of the ads.

6. Retail Stores
Cook indicated that the journey began with the retail stores "just over 7 years ago".  He then detailed that Apple has 247 stores in 8 countries that greet over 400,000 visitors every day.  He continued by stating that still over 50% of the Macs sold in these stores are to people who are new to Mac.  He implied that this is ultimately growing the Mac user base.

He closed that these are the 6 primary reasons they believe are contributing to the Mac momentum.  He demonstrated that this growth didn't just begin.  He showed a graphic detailing that the Mac has outgrown the market in 14 of the last 15 quarters.  A period that spans almost 4 years.  He was quick to highlight key milestones over the period such as the Intel transition and the release of Mac OS X Leopard.


Mac Retail Metrics
Cook then detailed the Mac Retail Market Share in the US in terms of units.  Apple has gone from a single digit number a few years ago to under 18%.  In his view, what's more impressive are the revenue share metric is over 31%.  This means that just about 1 out of every 3 dollars spent in US retail towards computers "is spent on the Macintosh".

Macs in Education
Cook then transitioned into other metrics such as notebook market share in U.S. education.  Apple has surpassed Dell and is now the top supplier of notebooks in this market segment with "a stunning 39% unit share".  When drilled down further, Macs hold nearly 50% at major universities.  A move form 15% to almost 50% in just six years.

Total Mac Units
Apple sold 800,000 more units in 2006 versus 2005, 1.8 million more in 2007 versus 2006, and so far in the first three fiscal quarters of 2008 they have matched last year's total.

Note that the image captures used  in this article were obtained from Tim Cook's presentation.