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There are already too many recent switchers trying to make the Mac more like their old Windows boxes. Market share is nice, but it has its drawbacks. A slow, steady increase is much more preferable to a big grab for market share. PC users need time to adjust to the idea of buying on quality instead of price.

Apple is on the move and Microshaft can't stop them. I am now PC free. i just dumped my HP and bought a Mac mini. That makes 5 Macs in the house and zero PC's.

Apple has recently placed too many resources on the iPod, iPhone lines and not enough on their Mac computers. I do agree that once Vista gets all their problems ironed out the opportunity to gain market share will slowly die.

The first thing that occurred to me was that "Stross" rhymes with "Dross," which is what this article is.

The idea that Vista's problems are going to be fixed anytime soon is ludicrous. They haven't been able to fix most of XP's problems, and judging by how long it took to get Vista out, it will take longer to fix it than XP!

Oh noes!

What the hell is this "Windows of opportunity" crap? Microsoft is stumbling? I can't think of a company which is more on top of their game than Microsoft.

Read it and weep MAC lemmings: Microsoft Windows Vista is FABULOUS. The 'Wow' is so now I can barely stand it. And would it kill you Apple losers to pick up a Zune and try it out? They're fantastic—brown, points and FM—the crappy iPod doesn't have any of those magnificent features. Crapple, get a clue.

Microsoft continues to be in the zone, people, and has been ever since DOS 5.

Your potential. Our passion.™

And most people live within five feet of the internet, making the Apple online store within easy reach of about 99% of the population.

I stumbled across that article last night on the NYTimes web site... what a total crock of bullshit!

I've "convinced" at least 6 people in the last few months to buy macs after they complained about whatever brand of DOSBox™ crapping out in one manner or other.

You say "get a Mac" and eyebrows knit. Then I add, "If you load your current copy of Windows on a mac, you can run whatever Windows app you need at the SAME TIME as Mac OS X!"

Apple STILL needs to get this point across, because in my view, the Window suffering minions STILL don't get the point that Macs can run Windows. Not that they ever WILL once they use OS X for any length of time, it's just a little security blanket.

I am a liar.

Your potential. Our passion.™

The future is mobile and wireless and the iPhone is well on the way to dominating. Once everyone has OS X in their pocket they'll be much more inclined to have it on the desktop too.

Apple would do well to expand it's "store-within-a-store" concept at Best Buy and Circut City, of course, all staffed by Apple-paid employees. That would give them much broader exposure with a minimum of investment. I was surprised to hear that they don't have a specific person charged with making that push into non-Apple retail space. They especially need this kind of exposure overseas.
Also, now that the initial crush is over, why isn't the iPhone on sale at Target, Best Buy and Circuit City (or even Walmart with the other iPods)? Now that would be an easy way to make an extra billion bucks before Christmas. People will buy the iPhone if they can see it, touch it and use it.
Otherwise, we're getting an Apple store here in Huntsville, AL within the month! Hallelujah! Putting Apple stores in strategic places like Huntsville is critical.

MDN is right: ...the state of the Mac is strong and growing stronger. Patience.

Slow and steady wins the race.

'The idea that Vista's problems are going to be fixed anytime soon is ludicrous'
OSX has many problems too and it takes ages to resolve them - vide: wireless internet connection problems that came to MacBooks with 10.4.10 update and not resolved to date, sad :(

I would working overtime to get something like this fixed, given how frequently OS X was touted as stable OS, and there we have something that completely and utterly tanks the system.

Do not forget, that Randall Stross is the author of the hatchet-job book "Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing". SJ didn't give him an interview, nobody at NeXT would talk to him, nobody at Apple talks to him today, and he's been in a snit over that ever since.

What surprises me is that the NYT would run this article. It's better suited for Paul Thurrot's web site.

-jcr

I probably should explain why Huntsville is strategic. Every defense contractor, aerospace company and NASA related industry has something going on in Huntsville. Boeing, Raytheon, etc. etc. etc.

What he heck is up with all these shiny screens on Macbook laptops?

I would have to fork over the big bucks to get a MaBook PRO with a regular screen.

Stupid if you ask me. How can Apple grab more market share when their hardware choices are severely limited?

Randall Stross fails to understand that Apple does not compete with Microsoft for OS sales. Instead Apple competes with hardware makers for computer sales. Apple's profit comes from selling Macs, not from selling Mac OS X in a shrink-wrapped box. Microsoft may still have 85 to 90% of the OS market, but no single hardware company has a majority of that 85 to 90%. Apple, on the other hand, has 100% of the Mac OS X market. It's better to be king of a small slice of the OS pie than to be fighting for crumbs from the rest of the pie.

10.5 will do the trick - it's all in the timing.

Here's the deal,

A company can only grow so fast before it overextends itself and becomes another Dell.

Whether it is the Mac, iPod or iPhone, without the kind of quality that Apple provides, and the kind of support it is able to give customers, it will no longer be what it is.

I think at the end of the day, for Apple to continue to be what it is today, it must pace itself. The Mac's US share is growing at 3 times the rest of the industry, and I think that is fast enough. Where it is not growing so fast, the corporate and international markets, some additional attention from Apple would be nice, as long as they can still remain on top of their game doing that.

Slow expansion into Best Buy and the like is necessary if the staff are to be Apple-trained. Any faster than this, you end up with the lemmings that sell HP.

Patience is Jobs' virtue... (sounds familiar somehow)

They can't simply open more stores, you don't get market share by opening 1 000 000 stores, you have to have the right product and you have to know how to sell it and how to keep your customer happy.
I have never bought anything from AS, cause I know the product and there's enough info on the net to clue me in on what I want.

Bush sucks!

...at stopping illegal immigration.

Clinton is a liberal scumbag!

That's an insult to scumbags everywhere!

Obama is black!

Obama is black??? I thought he had just been in the sun too long...

MDN never ceases to amaze me with their criticism of any thing critical to APPLE, I think the author is right... Apple is missing out on an amazing opportunity to increase market share right now... not that it has too though, MAC's can continue to be an obscure little platform for creative types and consumers. But those of us in the real world realize that unfortunately, M$ Windows continues to be ... and no thanks to Apple, will always be THE STANDARD in business computing and that REALLY sucks.

OK, so its my second rant for the day.

Apple has its own plan. It is not BIG numbers of crapola, its great products. That is what makes iPod 70+ % of the music market. It will be what makes iPhone a huge part of the smart phone market.

Apple does not try to go crazy racing to the bottom of the barrel making the cheapest junk it can. There is no money there. Just ask Motorola!!!

Take just a moment and look at the education market today. They are buying Macs and iPods and iPhones. They will be the buyers of computers in a few years and the buyers of company computers in a few years after that. They are not geeks going crazy trying to make linux work on desktops (no issue with linux, just it needs more years to develop IMHO).

I think Apple has a great plan and Bill Gate's comment about "What is Steve Jobs doing? Doesn't he know its all over?" shows how great the plan is. MS still does not even know what is going on in the world. Dinosaurs die slow, but they die.

en

The author agreed with me when I emailed him that there has been a major switch of IT opinion formers, like bloggers, to the Mac.

The likelihood is that the less advanced users will follow an masse later.

Things are looking just great for Apple. No amount of press comment about how they will fail will make that less true.


And Zune Tang - bury yourself.

@Mac_Atty

The one thing that you criticized MDN for is the one thing that you agree with them on - that Apple needs to do more to sell Macs. But one thing we all agree on is that this thing of MS being the "standard" has got to end somewhere somehow - it's got to.

Macaday is right. Zune Tang - bury yourself.

I'm tired of Windows trolls like Zune Tang spouting off with their drivel.

Macs Rule!

90% of the nation's population is within 45 minutes an Apple store (37 to 48 miles), according to Apple Inc.

Unfortunately, New Orleans is not included.

Get a clue guys - it's satire. Though that "I'm a liar" is likely a fake.

Maybe 90% of the Nations population is close, But the myopic view of Apple's real estate department is embarrassing. Multiple stores in the same cities and 100's of cities with Populations larger than 1 million unserved. The global story is global not national. If Apple wants and needs Safari to become mainstream...it isn't by adding another store in a city with a store already.

The announcement by Starbucks was typical. Put the sites under the obvious senior manager visibility locations first. Seattle, New York, San Francisco. Myopic...or just vain?

xhead,

Zune Tang is not a Windows troll.

What I don't understand is why Apple continuously runs iPod ads (and iPhone ads) but rarely runs a Mac ad. The new iMac occasionally has an ad, but nothing for laptops, Mac mini, etc.

iPods basically sell themselves. The opportunity to influence new buyers isn't as large as it once was with the iPod.

iPhone had more free pre-release publicity than anything in recent memory. I understand running ads for iPhone, particularly for the first month or two after launch.

However, not advertising the Mac is tantamount to neglect. The Mac is what Apple needs to work on promoting, because the media all promote iPods and iPhones endlessly, but they tend to just rip the Mac or ignore it.

@Ibuschjr

Ah yes, now here's a real question that unltimately leads to endless speculation and even some conspiracy theories. This is a question I've had for over 2.5 decades and I'd sure like to know why Apple does not really have, nor has it ever had any real ongoing marketing campaigns for its computer lines (The I'm-a-Mac-and-I'm-a-PC ads are the only historical exception so far). The few ads that we've had generally come across as unnecessarily vain, and childish, and even the I'm-a-Mac-and-I'm-a-PC ads fall short of demonstrating the Mac can just be a good solid production machine at home and work. In other words, less philosophy and more pragmatic info demonstrating the philosophy.

Personal experience has taught me that a significant number of people who really want to try something other than Windows are hesitant to try the Mac because they believe that they're going to get saddled with all of the emotional baggage they see some of us long-time users carrying around - and that's not very applealing even if the product itself is. So, good question.

@ Mr. Peabody

I agree completely, the "I'm-a-Mac-and-I'm-a-PC" ads are ineffective vis-a-ve the business community and do little sell macs outside the consumer market. I'd love to see an ad where they demostrate the OS with Dashboard, iWork, etc. Also relying on Apple store to truly increase market share is very limiting... what a few hundered Apple stores compared to the ten of thousands of outlets for PC's. WE ALL WANNA SEE APPLE SUCCEED ... but I think some of us, as the author this subject article suggests, would like to see a more aggressive approach to that direction.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that no IT manager with a mortgage will ever bring Macs into the work place. Macs just work. PC's just don't, thus providing work for IT employees. PC's constantly break down, catch viruses, etc. so you have to have a sizeable staff to contend with those problems. The IT worker in a Mac shop is like the Maytag repair man: he has nothing to do, so his days are numbered. PC is how you spell job security in the IT world.

I think Stevo said it best "Microsoft does not have to lose for Apple to win". I also believe apple will not chase after market share. I don't think it will do any good to start promising windows users that buying a MAC will fix all there computing problems. It seems to me that what causes most people problems with their computer is only partly MS's fault, causual users to me seem to cause as many problems for themselves simple becuase they refuse to read directions or can't understand them. While Macs are much more simple to use, it won't make users smarter. So why promise that it will.

I would like to see Mac share growth...but in a more organic way. No fire sales please.

Hmm, Apple did indeed have a much larger percentage of worldwide market share when the Mac was first introduced. PERHAPS BECAUSE THE HOME PC INDUSTRY WAS IN IT'S INFANCY? Apple was first to introduce a computer the average Joe could actually use without a computer science degree.

But, you are talking about a big slice of a tiny, tiny pie.

I think Ford had pretty close to 100% of the auto industry at one point- WITH THE MODEL T.

I think Apple's 3% worldwide currently (if that's even accurate) is looking very good- given that it's probably the lion's share of the high-margin, high quality computer sales. 3% of a virtually infinite number of sales... not bad at all.

All my friends use Macs and im giving the hard sell to anyone I meet who dosnt.

As Agent Smith said to Neo in the "Matrix" trilogy: "It is inevitable".

M$, do you hear that sound? That is the sound of inevitability...that is the sound of your (slow) death. Goodbye, Microsoft.

Someone made a dinosaur reference earlier. It's interesting; dinosaurs were the dominant species for hundreds of millions of years, but you don't see any dinosaurs around anymore, do you?

For the Mac fans who want the change to happen faster, don't worry; you ARE seeing it. M$ is the one who isn't.

Obsolescence doesn't usually happen overnight. Remember, at the beginning of the automobile revolution there were plenty of horse and buggies still around, as well as plenty of blacksmiths saying cars were too expensive, they'll never catch on, they were a fad, etc.

Just like the dinosaur, you don't see any more blacksmiths either, do you?

Corporate America will be the last domino to fall. Everywhere people have a CHOICE of which computer to buy, the change is occurring. That's why Steve's focus is and will continue to be the CONSUMER market.

Notice that all the people in the article who did switch made an INDIVIDUAL choice to do so; that momentum will accelerate once Leopard drops next month.

Peace.
Olmecmystic

MacDailyNews Take: Why does Stross use Net Applications' measure, a measure that can be influenced by browser agent spoofing ...?

Well, I don't know. There must be something good in that measure, because MacDailyNews reported faithfully Net Applications' measure each month from Nov2006 to Apr2007:

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/13816/
Net Applications: Apple Mac ‘market share’ rises to 6.46 percent; Tuesday, June 05, 2007 - 01:40 PM EDT
MacDailyNews Note: Different companies uses different methodologies, so the actual percentage figures aren't as meaningful as the trends they show. The important point is that Net Applications' measurements show that Mac's share continues to increase.

Of course, now that the number is no longer growing, there's no point reporting it. If it goes up, it's a reliable number. If it goes down, it's spoofing.

Net Applications: Apple Mac ‘market share’ at 6.21 percent; returns to growth; Tuesday, May 01, 2007 - 08:59 AM EDT
Net Applications: Apple’s Mac ‘market share’ declines slightly to 6.08% in March 2007; Tuesday, April 03, 2007 - 05:20 PM EDT
Net Applications: Apple’s Mac ‘market share’ continues rise, hits 6.38% in February 2007; Thursday, March 01, 2007 - 10:36 AM EDT
Net Applications: Apple’s Mac ‘market share’ continues rise, hits 6.22% in January 2007; Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 09:56 AM EDT
Net Applications: Apple’s Mac market share continues rise, hits 5.67% in December 2006; Monday, January 01, 2007 - 08:37 PM EDT
Net Applications: Apple’s Mac ‘market share’ continues rise, now at 5.39%, up 31% year-over-year; Friday, December 01, 2006 - 10:06 AM EDT

I think it's great that there are so many "experts" with track records in retail computer sales trying to help Apple, because we know how poorly they're doing...oh wait, Apple's doing fantastic? Nevermind.

Thanks, MDN. <Sniff> It was a potentially depressing article, but you rebutted it beautifully.

I am a mac user (and windows and linux) and I honestly would love to see more people on Macs. I think that they're the best choice for, oh, 75% of people out there.

I also think that Macs have a viable, if slightly less potent, market in business/enterprise grade distribution.

With that being said, Apple needs to make itself more available if it wants to gain market share. Customers are notoriously stubborn.

Apple needs to start an ad campaign where they just say "YES PEOPLE, WE FRIGGIN DO HAVE RIGHT CLICK!!!"

@MAC_ATTY

"... I think the author is right... Apple is missing out on an amazing opportunity to increase market share right now…"

Okay, but isn't the real question: 'and what exactly should they do?'.

No hand-waving or generalizations, but very, very specific checklist items that Apple can realistically do right now, and which won't be disruptive to their long term objectives.

For example, if Apple were to offer a $250 rebate on all new Macs bought, would this double their market share? (I doubt it). Or would it just cut their profits by 15%?

We can say "coulda-shoulda-woulda" all we want, but until someone puts forward a tangble plan that clearly doesn't give away long term growth for the immediate gratification of next quarter, it remains a 'good idea' that lacks an implimentation path.


@ lbuschjr

"What I don't understand is why Apple continuously runs iPod ads (and iPhone ads) but rarely runs a Mac ad...iPods basically sell themselves. The opportunity to influence new buyers isn't as large as it once was with the iPod."

They market the iPod because it is the 'Gateway Drug' to the rest of Apple's product line, of which 90% of the world doesn't use (point of this thread) and which then gets promoted more virally. Besides, if their mac manufacturing lines can't handle more than 30%/year growth, then they have to limit their sales to what is sustainable & supportable within their business model, and one way to do this is by not marketing.

-hh