Macs own 50% of the Marketshare??

SkyHog

SkyHog

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Just had a customer flip on me because we cannot do the application loader on her Blackberry on a Macintosh.

She claimed that Macs own 50% of the marketshare worldwide (or maybe in the US, not sure).

That can't be right is it? I thought it was still like 2.7% or so...
 
jtheune said:
8.5% US according to Fortune less then 4% worldwide.
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In the U.S. PC market, Dell continued to be the market leader with PC shipments accounting for 31.9 percent of the U.S. market in the second quarter of 2008 (see Table 2). HP's growth rate was slightly ahead of the U.S. average, and it appears HP's issues around inventory were resolved in the quarter. Apple's PC shipments grew 38.1 percent in the quarter. The home PC segment continued to be the strongest driver for Apple, as well as sales into the education segment.

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=724111
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Apple has 8.5% of new computer sales. Considering that businesses buy Windows PCs by the palletload that's pretty good indicator that Macs are selling well with people who get to choose for themselves - including a lot of the people who are making the decisions at the businesses. (The Windows experts at my joint have all followed me to the dark side and bought Macs for home. Bill should never have allowed Macs to run Windows. )
 
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SkyHog said:
Just had a customer flip on me because we cannot do the application loader on her Blackberry on a Macintosh.

She claimed that Macs own 50% of the marketshare worldwide (or maybe in the US, not sure).

That can't be right is it? I thought it was still like 2.7% or so...
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Yeah, its still fairly small, but it is kind of ridiculous for a company like RIM not to have Mac compatible software. I see more and more of them being used in business every day.
 
mikea said:
Apple has 8.5% of new computer sales. Considering that businesses buy Windows PCs by the palletload that's pretty god indicator hat Macs do well with people who get to choose for themselves - including a lot of the people who are making the decisions at the businesses.
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Freuden slip? :D
 
SkyHog said:
She claimed that Macs own 50% of the marketshare worldwide (or maybe in the US, not sure).

That can't be right is it? I thought it was still like 2.7% or so...
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No, not overall, not even close. The 8.5% that others have found sounds about right, and it has grown significantly the last few years (it used to be down in that 2.7 range...)

There are segments where Macs are much higher though. Their share is higher in laptops. The highest segment? 67% of computers over $1,000. That surprised the heck out of me.
 
With marketing plans like I saw today in the ISU Campus Bookstore --"Buy a Mac for school, get a free iPod", they're sure to turn a few uneducated heads. ;)
 
I've always wanted a Mac but have been concerned (perhaps unjustifiably) that there aren't enough applications available for them. It sounds like this may not be so. What about compatibility with standard corporate apps such as MS Word, Excel, and the lot. My company pretty much uses the MSOffice products for it's corporate desktop so if I'm working at home on my own computer (perhaps one day a Mac (Macbook is it called)), I want to make sure it's compatible.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
The highest segment? 67% of computers over $1,000. That surprised the heck out of me.
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Why? The vast majority of consumer computers now are priced at about $600-$900. Macs, generally being overpriced, routinely breach the $1000 mark, while PCs over that benchmark tend to be higher performance machines geared toward gamers and other power users rather than "normal" consumers.
 
Ken Ibold said:
Macs, generally being overpriced,
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Not in an apples-to-apples (so to speak) comparison. Unlike the crapware that gets bundled with Windows PCs, the software you get included with a Mac is actually useful.

routinely breach the $1000 mark,
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Priced a Mac Mini lately? They're as capable as any sub-$1000 PC.

while PCs over that benchmark tend to be higher performance machines geared toward gamers and other power users rather than "normal" consumers.
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So are the Macs over that benchmark; it's just that Mac users tend to do more with their systems in the first place.
 
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jmaynard said:
Not in an apples-to-apples (so to speak) comparison. Unlike the crapware that gets bundled with Windows PCs, the software you get included with a Mac is actually useful.


Priced a Mac Mini lately? They're as capable as any sub-$1000 PC.


So are the Macs over that benchmark; it's just that Mac users tend to do more with their systems in the first place.
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Well, the whole mac/pc thing is, IMO, akin to the high-wing/low-wing debate. Get what you like. They both do the job, although differently, and each has its good and bad points. (I have worked for many years with Macs, going back to the days when you had to boot them with a floppy disk. I happen to own PCs, just because. I actually like them better.)

From an image standpoint, Macs are like scooters, PCs are like motorcycles. To each his/her own.
 
Ken Ibold said:
Well, the whole mac/pc thing is, IMO, akin to the high-wing/low-wing debate. Get what you like. They both do the job, although differently, and each has its good and bad points. (I have worked for many years with Macs, going back to the days when you had to boot them with a floppy disk. I happen to own PCs, just because. I actually like them better.)

From an image standpoint, Macs are like scooters, PCs are like motorcycles. To each his/her own.
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Amen! And that'd be the way it'd go, except for the fact that some folks try to turn it into some kind of epic good vs. evil, David vs. Goliath, my guy can do no wrong and your guy can do no right sort of a thing. Then it starts to get silly.
 
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Interoperability with MS office suite is a piece of cake on the mac. Has been for years.

I use a mac at home. My "main" computer at work has to be a windoze computer. But the computer at work that I use to actually accomplish work is the macbook pro I'm using right now.

The only applications that I can't use natively on the mac are Project and Access. The workaround is using a windoze VM to run XP for the sole purpose of running project (I don't need Access).
 
> From an image standpoint, Macs are like scooters, PCs are like motorcycles.

LOL - more accurate would be PCs are like <insert name of cheapest vehicle also needing to be maintained daily> and Macs are like <insert name of finely crafted reliable vehicle>


> To each his/her own.

BINGO!
 
BartY said:
but it is kind of ridiculous for a company like RIM not to have Mac compatible software.
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Not really. The 3G IPhone is in competition with the BB. Strategic decision making on the part of RIM.

Greg
 
ggroves said:
Not really. The 3G IPhone is in competition with the BB. Strategic decision making on the part of RIM.

Greg
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And the vast, vast, vast majority of BB users are corporate users who live in Windows environments. Developing Desktop Manager for Mac or Linux or anything else would be a colossal waste of time.
 
Ken Ibold said:
Well, the whole mac/pc thing is, IMO, akin to the high-wing/low-wing debate. Get what you like. They both do the job, although differently, and each has its good and bad points. (I have worked for many years with Macs, going back to the days when you had to boot them with a floppy disk. I happen to own PCs, just because. I actually like them better.)

From an image standpoint, Macs are like scooters, PCs are like motorcycles. To each his/her own.
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+1. To each his own. I happen to prefer Dell computers, and <shock/horror> Vista, which my IT team has successfully deployed on 2500 machines @ work, and at home - crash free. I still don't get the evangelical slant with the Apple crowd.

Greg
 
ReverendSlappy said:
And the vast, vast, vast majority of BB users are corporate users who live in Windows environments. Developing Desktop Manager for Mac or Linux or anything else would be a colossal waste of time.
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Precisely. With BES in an enterprise environment, the client BB software is irrelevant, unless you have data to preserve. I didn't even load it on my new work PC. The BES server pushes out everything I need.

Greg
 
ggroves said:
I still don't get the evangelical slant with the Apple crowd.
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I can't speak to anyone else, but I use and advocate Macs because I got thoroughly sick and tired of the crap that Windows put me through. I want my systems to run first time, every time. I want my systems to do what I ask of them without complaint or crashing. I want my systems to take on new tasks or deal with new hardware without having to spend days on tweaking settings to get them to work properly. I want my systems to not require reboots daily, or reinstalls monthly.

I get all of that with a Mac. I never got any of it with Windows.
 
jmaynard said:
I can't speak to anyone else, but I use and advocate Macs because I got thoroughly sick and tired of the crap that Windows put me through. I want my systems to run first time, every time. I want my systems to do what I ask of them without complaint or crashing. I want my systems to take on new tasks or deal with new hardware without having to spend days on tweaking settings to get them to work properly. I want my systems to not require reboots daily, or reinstalls monthly.

I get all of that with a Mac. I never got any of it with Windows.
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Daily reboots? Monthly reinstalls? What are you doing wrong?
 

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Macs are in the 10% range, but there's a higher Mac User ratio because often the serious Mac user also has a Windows machine for some apps.

Macs are mores expensive, work much better and the typical Mac user is more serious, uses his Mac more, and spends more on software than his Windows counterpart.

A lot of Windows machines are cheap toys. None of the Macs are.

Now, a lot of large firms are windows based because they can afford a sophisticated IT department to keep them all working (but they still fail occasionally).

There's more specialized software for the Windows (nice to have an Intel Mac that runs both). And today, there is not a Mac flight planning application (but we're waiting).

To each his own, I'm a Mac guy, have several. Have one Windows machine for flying and it's a pain.
 
Larryo said:
Macs are mores expensive, work much better and the typical Mac user is more serious, uses his Mac more, and spends more on software than his Windows counterpart.
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The latest Apple marketing campaign suggests otherwise -- the PC is balding, older, wears glasses, and frumpy clothes. The Mac is younger, hip, with-it, and "fun."

If you want "serious personal computer geek" see Linux.
 
jmaynard said:
No drama, just straight out fact. I'm sorry if the Microsoft fanboys here don't believe me, but I know what I had to deal with, and I swore I never would again.
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The point is that chances are whatever it was you had to "deal with" probably wasn't Microsoft's fault.
 
ReverendSlappy said:
Daily reboots? Monthly reinstalls? What are you doing wrong?
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Nothing.

At one point, when I was wrestling with Windows 2000 (which was, itself, a major advance in stability and reliability over its predecessors), I had a problem where opening the bookmarks menu in Opera would reliably BSOD the box. I was working at Compaq at the time, and the problem was on a shiny new Armada M300 laptop. My dad was also working there, as the manager for Microsoft certification of the commercial portables. He got me together with the folks responsible for the M300. They wrangled with the problem. They couldn't get it to work either.

The standard response to a problem with Windows is "reboot; if that doesn't work, reinstall". That's horse exhaust on any other system, but it's SOP for Windows. There's no reason an OS should require that.
 
jmaynard said:
Nothing.

At one point, when I was wrestling with Windows 2000 (which was, itself, a major advance in stability and reliability over its predecessors), I had a problem where opening the bookmarks menu in Opera would reliably BSOD the box. I was working at Compaq at the time, and the problem was on a shiny new Armada M300 laptop. My dad was also working there, as the manager for Microsoft certification of the commercial portables. He got me together with the folks responsible for the M300. They wrangled with the problem. They couldn't get it to work either.
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So... Uh... How's that a Microsoft problem and not an Opera problem, exactly? Because I mean I can write some drivers that'll BSOD XP too. But that's my problem, not Microsoft's.

jmaynard said:
The standard response to a problem with Windows is "reboot; if that doesn't work, reinstall". That's horse exhaust on any other system, but it's SOP for Windows. There's no reason an OS should require that.
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No, it's not SOP. Who were you asking, Comcast customer service? Some kid at the end of the block? Because the real answer is, "Fix the PoS app that's blowing up. Kthxbye."
 
jmaynard said:
Nothing.

At one point, when I was wrestling with Windows 2000 (which was, itself, a major advance in stability and reliability over its predecessors), I had a problem where opening the bookmarks menu in Opera would reliably BSOD the box. I was working at Compaq at the time, and the problem was on a shiny new Armada M300 laptop. My dad was also working there, as the manager for Microsoft certification of the commercial portables. He got me together with the folks responsible for the M300. They wrangled with the problem. They couldn't get it to work either.

The standard response to a problem with Windows is "reboot; if that doesn't work, reinstall". That's horse exhaust on any other system, but it's SOP for Windows. There's no reason an OS should require that.
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I'm calling shenanigans. If this were happening on a OS level (which, btw, even suggesting opening bookmarks in Opera could be an OS thing seriously brings questions surrounding your true "geek credentials"), this would be everywhere. Anyone who bought a Compaq would have been flipping out, and this would have been a really big deal.

Beyond that, when anyone has as many problems with an OS and you mac users have with Windows, I can only assume that y'all don't know how to use a computer properly. I rarely use Windows anymore, because I'm a bigger fan of Linux, but short of ONE major issue I had that chased me away for good (well...good enough, I'm back when I need it now), I never had this huge number of issues y'all have.

I've used a Mac. Its like a kid's toy: Built so strong that the dumb folks can't mess 'em up....but also so tight that the smart folks can't tweak them to their liking.
 
garlic_clove-skin.jpg
:D
 
ReverendSlappy said:
So... Uh... How's that a Microsoft problem and not an Opera problem, exactly? Because I mean I can write some drivers that'll BSOD XP too. But that's my problem, not Microsoft's.
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There is no reason whatsoever that an application should cause the entire OS to crash. None. No reputable OS aside from Windows allows this. You cannot cause a Linux kernel panic or an OS X failure from an application. The application will be terminated, and the rest of the system keeps right on running.

No, applications shouldn't crash - but it's inexcusable for the OS to crash when the application has a problem.

No, it's not SOP. Who were you asking, Comcast customer service? Some kid at the end of the block? Because the real answer is, "Fix the PoS app that's blowing up. Kthxbye."
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Funny...I've been told by Microsoft Support (while working to resolve a customer issue) that reinstalling Windows is a recommended way to get the system back to a known state.
 
dmccormack said:
The latest Apple marketing campaign suggests otherwise -- the PC is balding, older, wears glasses, and frumpy clothes. The Mac is younger, hip, with-it, and "fun."

If you want "serious personal computer geek" see Linux.
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DM,

I'd consider Linux, but there's no good support out there. It's hard to find good Windows support. Everyone's an expert but don't know what they're doing. I still have problems over three years that the "experts" can't fix on the Windows.

But, Mac support is only a phone call away.....

I'll stay Mac.
 
Those praising PCs should remember that lots and lots of us are not IT people or programmers. Many of us are end users who have far better things to do. The IT guys who do the PCs in the med school are all very, very busy. The one guy who does the Macs is also very, very busy, fixing PCs. The fact that a computer literate person can keep a PC working just fine no matter what is analogous to a mechanic buying a wreck because he or she has the skills to fix it.
 
steingar said:
Those praising PCs should remember that lots and lots of us are not IT people or programmers. Many of us are end users who have far better things to do. The IT guys who do the PCs in the med school are all very, very busy. The one guy who does the Macs is also very, very busy, fixing PCs. The fact that a computer literate person can keep a PC working just fine no matter what is analogous to a mechanic buying a wreck because he or she has the skills to fix it.
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I'm an IT person with plenty of experience on lots of different platforms. I have far better things to do than fiddle with my desktop system. I spend enough time fiddling with the stuff I get paid to work on.
 
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