Apple sales soar to capture 14% of US PC retail sales(blogs.zdnet.com)
blogs.zdnet.com
Apple sales soar to capture 14% of US PC retail sales
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1520
24 comments
If applications like Skype or last.fm's clients are any indication, people will use high-quality cross-platform frameworks like Qt instead of exclusively choosing Apple's proprietary platform over Microsoft's.
As far as the web-based apps observation, if you are doing word-processing the online tools make the user experience pretty much OS-agnostic as it is. Personally, I'd love to see the day when bandwidth is to fat that we can start keeping the processing hardware on the other end of the pipe too. Can you imagine being able to yank extra processing cycles off the pipe from any machine you happen to be using on demand?
I think the tipping point has already been reached. My partner has a MacBook, so when I bought her a Garmin nuvi GPS for Christmas, I was expecting to have to fire up Fusion on my own MacBook fairly often to update it, load maps etc. Imagine my surprise when Garmin released Mac support for their products just before Christmas.
If you go to the peripherals section of any electronics store these days, it is rare to find a device that doesn't support Mac. We're also starting to see an improved support for Mac by games software producers...
If you go to the peripherals section of any electronics store these days, it is rare to find a device that doesn't support Mac. We're also starting to see an improved support for Mac by games software producers...
Hm... they say Apple now captures 25% of all revenue from PC sales, I wonder if that includes corporate sales. Because if it does, it means that Apple currently holds over half of new home/personal PC sales.
No, it doesn't. For most corporations, apple is what the kids use to listen to music.
I wonder where the tipping point comes in?
Can't we gauge this by the number of viruses targeted at the Mac?
Can't we gauge this by the number of viruses targeted at the Mac?
No, because that assumes that mac and windows are equally exploitable. Given mac's core, they are not.
I figured the hackers around here would understand that these things are more a function of popularity, with one of the variables being the core security design. Thinking you're "safe" using any popular software is pretty much living in denial.
Apple software is certainly not immune to this: http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/QuickTime-evil-pink-box...
Software systems are so incredibly complex and market forces and technology changes require lots and lots of new code to be written. Today we can secure a lot of problems discovered as harmful "yesterday", but every new day brings new clever tricks that chip away at our old assumptions. It's a cycle that no one is immune to as long as technology keeps moving.
Apple software is certainly not immune to this: http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/QuickTime-evil-pink-box...
Software systems are so incredibly complex and market forces and technology changes require lots and lots of new code to be written. Today we can secure a lot of problems discovered as harmful "yesterday", but every new day brings new clever tricks that chip away at our old assumptions. It's a cycle that no one is immune to as long as technology keeps moving.
I didn't suggest that mac's were immune to threats, that would be stupid. Given their BSD base, though, mac's are inherently more secure than windows boxes.
I think the difference is great enough that you can't use virus penetration as a measure of system popularity.
I think the difference is great enough that you can't use virus penetration as a measure of system popularity.
In that case, I didn't suggest that virus penetration be the metric, but attempts at penetration.
Although it is likely that there is a correlation between attempts and the perceived vulnerability of the system, you would also expect a correlation between attempts and expected total success (which goes up with market share).
Although it is likely that there is a correlation between attempts and the perceived vulnerability of the system, you would also expect a correlation between attempts and expected total success (which goes up with market share).
the US economy.
When nobody wants to pay $1200 for a laptop.
(And I don't mean hackers, designers & film editors)
When nobody wants to pay $1200 for a laptop.
(And I don't mean hackers, designers & film editors)
I think it's just that no one's buying PCs right now while the Mac cult continues to buy Apple products, recession or not.
It's been well-known for a long time that Mac users are much more willing to pay for value than PC users are. They enjoy buying things that make them happy. This is why you can be a Mac ISV and get by with a much smaller userbase to sell to.
It's been well-known for a long time that Mac users are much more willing to pay for value than PC users are. They enjoy buying things that make them happy. This is why you can be a Mac ISV and get by with a much smaller userbase to sell to.
+1 despite your use of the word "cult", because you're right -- Apple customers are the ones with the money. Not a bad set of customers to have.
Another factor you don't mention here: Even if you think that Vista doesn't suck, it seems to have utterly failed to inspire anyone.
Another factor you don't mention here: Even if you think that Vista doesn't suck, it seems to have utterly failed to inspire anyone.
i'm still waiting to hear why macs are better than PC's. I've asked many mac fans and never received a good answer.
Thats because there's not a good answer, there are good answers depending on what you want to do with it.
For me it comes down to; I hate putty and don't like cygwin very much. Also mac hardware is well defined. I know I'm going to be able to dual boot the centos distro we use for development, and once I've got all of the drivers figured out, I can easily get the same mac again and get that config to everyone in our company. I've bought one too many dells with the same model number and different sound, graphics, wireless hardware. My mac also sleeps when I close the lid and wakes up faster than any other computer I've ever had. This makes me happy.
Note: This is just my reason. For every other mac user you'll find a reason of their own. Some little itch that a mac just happens to scratch a little better. And yes, I find mac fanbois with bs reasons for mac superiority just as tedious as most hackers do.
For me it comes down to; I hate putty and don't like cygwin very much. Also mac hardware is well defined. I know I'm going to be able to dual boot the centos distro we use for development, and once I've got all of the drivers figured out, I can easily get the same mac again and get that config to everyone in our company. I've bought one too many dells with the same model number and different sound, graphics, wireless hardware. My mac also sleeps when I close the lid and wakes up faster than any other computer I've ever had. This makes me happy.
Note: This is just my reason. For every other mac user you'll find a reason of their own. Some little itch that a mac just happens to scratch a little better. And yes, I find mac fanbois with bs reasons for mac superiority just as tedious as most hackers do.
you are the first person to give me an honest non-knee jerk response answer. thank you.
I can't necessarily say that my Mac is better than my PC, but I can say that I have never experienced a security problem with the Mac. With my PC, I recently deleted IE7 from the thing because I picked up some something while browsing a well-known German news site that caused IE to open multiple times, bringing the computer to a screeching halt.
The Mac, however, is not immune from performance problems. I occasionally get the spinning beach ball of death when an application suddenly decides it doesn't want to work anymore.
The Mac, however, is not immune from performance problems. I occasionally get the spinning beach ball of death when an application suddenly decides it doesn't want to work anymore.
Why don't you try one out and come to your own conclusions? For me, it was their applications. Although they are by no means perfect, they gave me the incentive to try the OS. After that, it was a no brainer.
I have tried OSX. The file system and the way applications are handled bugs me. If i needed something besides windows I would be much more inclined to use one of the bigger linux distros simply because the macs, despite what the fans say, seem really locked down. sure, that can be changed, but the macs default behavior seems to be <i>here, let me do it for you</i>
Half of my friends use laptops that are actually company laptops, but they use them around the house and for anything and everything. None of these computers are Apples.
Anyone know what Apple's market share is for all PC sales including corporate?
Anyone know what Apple's market share is for all PC sales including corporate?
Ever notice that, unlike with PCs, the older your PowerBook is the cooler you are?
WHAT? Is this title implying that Macintosh computers are PCs as well? Say it isn't so doc! What's that about Intel chips? Native windows booting? What? Sobs in the corner
That is, the point where there's a substantial enough non-Windows marketshare that ISVs can't go with Microsoft's proprietary development solutions and practises due to the need to go cross-platform or neglect a large chunk of the market.
Once you hit that point, the value of Windows (that is, it's ecosystem) starts to plummet.
Any other ideas for what could happen?
edit: I guess we've already seen the effect of the second paragraph in the proliferation of web-based applications.