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Another headline for this piece might have been:

"IDC: Apple's market share drops 1.2% over last year"

You can spin it all you like.

In this economy, a 1.2% drop ain't nothing to complain about.

Well, at least if your brain is functioning. Your mileage may vary...

Are the previous year's numbers actual numbers released by the company earnings, and this current number simply IDC's number? Aren't the IDC numbers typically below the actual sales number?

Once again, the same error

Figures lie and liars figure.

Should have used dollars instead of units.

I think 3M sold more rolls of tape than Apple did computers, does that make 3M better off financially? No.

Apr 15, 09 - 06:03 pm Comment from: Phytonix

No. Apple's share dropped 0.2%.

The -1.2% refers to "growth"; Apple's unit volume was down 1.2% from Q1 of 2008. Dave is right - nothing to complain about, since the market share went UP. And MDN's take rightly notes that this isn't talking about dollar volumes or margins which are the more interesting numbers...

Actually if you bother to read: Marklet share went up .2%

It would be nice to see Apple come out with a more affordable laptop.

Another headline for this piece might have been:

"IDC: Apple's market share drops 1.2% over last year"

You can spin it all you like.

What MDN is saying is if you can find a small number of people to pay $1400 for $500 worth of computer, market share is unimportant. Oh Wait - Intel and NVidia gives the best parts to Apple and gives all the "Box assemblers" their junk...

Plus Macs are SOOO "Elegant", "Sexy", "Thin" and "Gorgeous"..

Dell and Apple are bold enough to think different and not sell the kind of crap that the stupid market wants. That's why you see a minus sign before 1Q09/1Q08 growth for these two companies. I think it's unfair and wrong.

Apr 15, 09 - 06:26 pm Comment from: jarrettdailynews

Dell is not bold, and their sales slid, because they sell garbage.

Apr 15, 09 - 06:27 pm Comment from: Jubei

How can you compete against a monopoly? You can make the best products and still won't gain much when your up against a monopoly. Apple earned its share thru sheer hard work and innovation. The other guy paid 50K and got a free ride with IBM for instant market share domination.

@jarrettdailynews
"Dell is not bold, and their sales slid, because they sell garbage."

Thanks, now I finally understand how you gain or lose market share - if you sell garbage you end up with a low market share.

Apr 15, 09 - 06:48 pm Comment from: twilightmoon

Where's Psystar on that list?

@AIX, you are terribly wrong, it is exactly the opposite:

The headline should have read:

"Apple increases unit market share, in spite of market drifting to cheaper computers like net books, and in the middle one of the worst recessions in 80 years"

And considering that their margin is higher than the competition...this should be excellent news for the stock price"

Apr 15, 09 - 07:04 pm Comment from: jarrettdailynews

No moron, you and I both know that isn't the case. My point being that Dell is not a bold company. You either make money or you don't, and you can't always cut costs and jobs to shore up profits.
Sooner or later the proof is in the pudding. Apple's margins are always high because they refuse to offer low end machines, which is one you are probably on now. You know, that cool netbook your mom got you for Christmas. Out of computers costing $1,000 or more, Apple has a 60%+ share of the market. I believe my business education tells me that I love the high end margins versus the alternitive, thank you for playing though.

sorry Alx, me post was meant for spin...

Apr 15, 09 - 07:19 pm Comment from: ken1w

Read the chart right...

First Quarter 2009 - Apple 7.6%
First Quarter 2008 - Apple 7.4%

Apple market share, as measured by this method went UP.

The total unit shipments went down -1.2% for Apple, but that's better than the average of all vendors -3.1%.

@jarrettdailynews

Now I have it from two sources: both you and Steve Ballmer say that Apple's margins are always high. And you both have business education.

Apr 15, 09 - 08:06 pm Comment from: Cubert

Holy crap are there a lot of new articles on MDN today!!

Apr 15, 09 - 08:11 pm Comment from: Cubert

Back on Topic:
To clarify for all the readers - Apple's market share dropped some from the prior period - Q42008 (ie. the Christmas period) - which is typical given consumer buying patterns, but year-over-year sales were basically flat.

Sounds like good news to me given today's financial environment.

Apr 15, 09 - 08:17 pm Comment from: shawnpetriw

Could someone please recalculate the tables with $$ instead of units? What share of the MONEY does Apple have? That's the real market share.

I live in the Asia/Pacific region so world figures are more important than U.S. sales.

Apr 15, 09 - 08:32 pm Comment from: Big Al

Apples market share in the USA went up year over year.

You Windows Weenies have been shoving market share in our faces since 1995. Don't change your whiny tune now.

Apr 15, 09 - 08:41 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

Every Apple sale is like a flower in bloom waiting to be pollinated.

When Apple eclipses HP
Jobs will be over the moon
I will be in the garden
tending to every bloom

When Apple eclipses the moon
and the cow has crashed and burned
Windows graphic artists
will know the worm has turned.

If they're including netbooks they should consider including iphones and ipodtouch as part of the numbers, then we'd see what the rate of adoption of Apple computing devices are vs the others.

Apr 15, 09 - 08:57 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

So if Apple ships a $2,500 MacBook Pro that counts as one,
and if Dell ships a $500 Netbook that counts as . . . one?

@The Other Steve

Yep. That's exactly what it means. Worse, they include computers that go into things like elevators and cash registers. Hardly what I would call a personal computer.

Much as it pains me, unit sales are the only way to judge market size. One person might be willing to pay $4 billion for a single computer, which would make for fantastic profit margins but a tiny market. Markets are judged by demand - and currently the demand is for cheap, crappy little netbooks.

Apr 15, 09 - 11:19 pm Comment from: Anonymous©

<<Comment from: Spin
Another headline for this piece might have been:

"IDC: Apple's market share drops 1.2% over last year">>

No need to spin, since you can't read english. Apple's growth dropped 1.2%, while the US PC market dropped 3.1%; resulting in a 0.2% market share gain. Not, a 1.2% drop. You, my friend, failed.

"Units sales are nice, but not as nice as healthy margins. "

I'm sure software developers are really happy for Apple.

Back to Windows.

"No need to spin, since you can't read english. Apple's growth dropped 1.2%, while the US PC market dropped 3.1%; resulting in a 0.2% market share gain."

But the days of 25% market share growth are over. Gone. Not coming back.

So from these numbers Apple has about 3.4% worldwide market share now.

Impressive!

Apr 16, 09 - 07:34 am Comment from: twilightmoon

me "Units sales are nice, but not as nice as healthy margins. "

I'm sure software developers are really happy for Apple.

Back to Windows."

Hey, genius, who do you think buys more software? A sub-500 netbook owner, or a 2500 MacBook Pro owner?

A developer that looks strictly at the number of Macs sold vs number of Windows PCs sold is an idiot. You have to look at market segments, you have to analyze which groups have the greatest chance to buy a particular piece of software. Cash register PCs are not the same as consumer laptops.

Gone "But the days of 25% market share growth are over. Gone. Not coming back."

And you know this how?

Impressed "3.4% worldwide market share"

Apple's marketshare has never been high worldwide. Certainly there is growth opportunity there, but Apple is wisely focused on US marketshare growth where they can have the most impact both in terms of revenue and in terms of controlling their segment of the market.

Apple's strategy in a nutshell: create the most desirable computers at the top end of the market and collect all the high value customers, and leave the razor-thin-profit cheapskate customers to their competitors.

Apr 16, 09 - 07:39 am Comment from: Beavertail

After all their effort, Apple's market share is still minuscule.

Apr 16, 09 - 07:39 am Comment from: Cubert

Looks like G4Dualie dipped into the good stash today.

Apr 16, 09 - 09:11 am Comment from: onionhead

@Beavertail...

yeah, i'm wondering just how long the switch is going to take. starting to have doubts...

Apr 16, 09 - 09:22 am Comment from: ChrisM

My $160 refurb Dell Mini 9 running Mac OSX is a "real" computer. It runs great. In fact, it boots faster than an iMac C2D. Once Apple releases a "netbook", suddenly MDN will take this market segment seriously.

"After all their effort, Apple's market share is still minuscule."

It's the same arguments from MDN that were used in the dark old days for Apple.

Maybe when Apple is facing bankruptcy Microsoft will save them again. Or maybe not after all those adds.

"Apple's strategy in a nutshell: create the most desirable computers at the top end of the market and collect all the high value customers, and leave the razor-thin-profit cheapskate customers to their competitors."

It looks like that worked great up until last quarter. Now Apple seems to have soaked up (or soaked) all of those customers and will need a new idea if they want to keep growing. Perhaps they don't want to keep growing. That's fine too.

The fact is all rapid growth comes to an end. Apple got a boost by adding Intel processors and Windows compatibility, plus forcing an upgrade cycle on every Mac owner. They're coming to the end of the extra sales growth that those two things provided.

I lol'd at the Macdailynews take on netbooks.

When will Macdailynews understand that people like netbooks because they are really portable and not because they are cheap?

The current macbooks with a 13 inch footprint are huge in comparison.

Before the intel transition, Apple had far more portable laptops (the 12 inch powerbook and ibook).

I'm not giving up my G4 12 inch powerbook until apple releases a more portable laptop and not one that is just super thin. I'll run leopard for as long as possible, but I'll eventually switch over to some Power Pc linux distro if I have to. I'm currently trying out PowerPC ubuntu.

It's really nice, better than Windows, but not as good as OSX.

There's no specific OSX program I need. I just use OSX because I like the OS itself. Supposedly, ubuntu is also being ported to ARM architecture so I might get an ARM netbook.

"Another headline for this piece might have been:

"IDC: Apple's market share drops 1.2% over last year"

You can spin it all you like."

Let's pretend that's true.

Marketshare is not a zero-sum game for Apple. Others don't have to lose in order for Apple to win and win often.

Apr 16, 09 - 01:41 pm Comment from: twilightmoon

"Maybe when Apple is facing bankruptcy Microsoft will save them again."

Hyperbole much? The problem with your statement is it assumes Microsoft ever bailed Apple out of bankruptcy. This is simply false. The stock Microsoft purchased when Steve Jobs came back was merely a symbolic gesture of support. It was a tiny amount of stock, only 150 million, and Apple made more than that in a quarter, even back then. The main benefit to Apple at the time was an agreement from Microsoft to continue to develop Office for the Mac platform.

"The fact is all rapid growth comes to an end. Apple got a boost by adding Intel processors and Windows compatibility, plus forcing an upgrade cycle on every Mac owner. They're coming to the end of the extra sales growth that those two things provided."

Did you just sleep through all the bad economic news?

Or did you assume that Apple's magical unicorn tears with every product would save them from any effect of a bad global economic climate?

Apple's Macs are doing well given the situation, how well do you think their competitors higher end systems are doing? Comparing Apple's healthy margin $1000 and $2500 systems one to one to Dell and HP's sub $500 netbooks, unit for unit is insanity, even in a healthy economic climate, but in a global recession?

How well is Apple selling to the segments they are specifically targeting vs their competition? That's a much more interesting comparison, sadly no one is doing that. They lump all sales together in a giant pile and say Apple's "market share is still minuscule" as if that means something.

Does anyone here really think that a five star steakhouse frets over whether they sell as much beef as all the McDonald's in the same city?

"When will Macdailynews understand that people like netbooks because they are really portable and not because they are cheap?"

It's really both reasons. Netbooks are cheap and super portable. If Apple does make a Netbook, it will only be one of those two, three guesses as to which.

"Or did you assume that Apple's magical unicorn tears with every product would save them from any effect of a bad global economic climate?"

But others are up, some of them a lot, and Apple is down. So "Economic Climate" may seem like a convenient thing to blame Apple's poor performance on, but it's not the real reason.

"Does anyone here really think that a five star steakhouse frets over whether they sell as much beef as all the McDonald's in the same city?"

Yes, when everyone thinks their 5 star steak burgers which use the same beef as McDonalds are not worth the extra price they fret, they fret a lot.

And with Steve gone and the strength of the RDF fading, Microsoft is out there pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. With no Steve to spin the situation, Apple is going down.