Market Share Topic

Philip Elmer-DeWitt, in a blog post on Fortune, highlights interesting Apple Mac growth analysis put forth by Charles Wolf, a Needham & Co.'s senior analyst.  The analysis explains how Apple's recent Mac growth was seven times the growth rate of the overall PC market.

Distorted-Loop highlights data from a recent Gartner report that Apple maintained its number one computer manufacturer ranking in the Western Europe education market during the first quarter of 2009 (Q1 2009) with 26.4 percent market share. Apple also maintained the top slot in the UK market with 27.3 percent market share.

According to market research firm Net Applications, Apple's Mac OS market share rose to 9.81 percent during May 2009.  These metrics detail the computer operating systems that visit sites tracked by Net Applications.  Not only did the May 2009 increase reverse the decline observed in April 2009 but it also shows that Mac OS market share rose by over 25 percent on a year-over-year (YOY) basis.  In May 2008 Mac OS share stood at 7.83 percent, just a year later it checks in just shy of two percentage points higher.

According to market research firm Net Applications, Apple's Mac OS market share rose to 8.87 percent during November 2008.  These metrics detail the operating systems that visit sites tracked by Net Applications.  Not only did the November increase reverse the decline observed in October but it also shows that Mac OS market share rose by over 30 percent on a year-over-year (YOY) basis.  In November 2007 Mac OS market share stood at 6.80 percent, just a year later it checks in at more than two percentage points higher.

According to data collected and metrics tracked by market research firm Net Applications, Apple's Mac OS market share dipped to 8.21 during October 2008.  Although falling versus September 2008, Mac OS market share rose by 24.77 percent on an annualized basis.  In October 2007 Mac OS market share stood at 6.58 percent as measured by Net Applications.

At the onset of today's notebook event Apple CEO Steve Jobs quickly handed the presentation over to Tim Cook, Apple's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO).  Cook gave a presentation titled, 'State of the Mac' which provided insight into Mac momentum.  Cook started off by stating that Apple is growing at 2-3 times the market growth rate. He then listed reasons why Apple believes that they are growing at this rate.

The Justice, an student newspaper of Brandeis University, reports that 60 percent of incoming freshman have come to school with a Mac. This influx of Mac users has raised the school's Mac user base to 40 percent.

FP Trading Desk reports that the Royal Bank of Canada's investment banking division published an opinion today that Apple may sell upwards of 3.04 million Macs during the current quarter which runs from July to the end of September.

Earlier this week, the buzz was centered around Apple's new beta Boot Camp software for OS X Tiger 10.4.6 that allows owners of new Intel Macs to extend the funcionality of the systems to boot into Mac OS X or Windows XP.  Apple also released firmware updates for the entire line of the Intel Macs that provide EFI and BIOS support that should allow the new Intel Macs to boot into adiitional operating systems such as Windows XP, the upcoming Windows Vista, and Linux.  The Intel Macs use a modern booting technology called EFI, Extensible Firmware Interface.  In order to boot Windows XP and Windows Vista, the computer needs to support BIOS, a technology over 20 years old.  Boot Camp bridges the EFI and BIOS gap.

Historically, there has never been a true test to compare Macs with Intel based PCs.  New data and benchmarks demonstrating that the Intel powered MacBook Pros and iMacs run Windows faster than today's PCs dismiss the myths that Macs are slower, behind the technology curve, and are more costly.  The point I'd like to make is that the Intel based Macs were designed and engineered to be Macs that run OS X, not Windows.  The fact that they run Windows XP faster than WinTel machines proves that Apple's hardware engineering, innovation, and quality surpasses its competitors.