Mac Sales Soaring Ping!
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Posted on 07/16/2008 10:33:39 PM PDT by Swordmaker
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Apple takes the number 3 computer vendor slot in the US edging Acer.
So Walmart is prohibited by Apple from selling Macs? Fry's electronics sells them so they do not have an exclusive distribution channel.
It is a computer, not a religion.
This comes as no surprise. Microsoft hasn’t really done anything new and positive for themselves in years, outside of the X-Box.
So Walmart is prohibited by Apple from selling Macs?Soon, enough Mac users will be out there, armed with a decent amount of Apple Retail Stores close at hand, that they'll be able to influence their tech-challenged family, friends, and neighbors enough to dissuade them from blindly running on over to Wal-Mart to inflict yet another dreadful Windows PC mess upon their ignorant selves. And then the Mac tsunami really hits.
You haven't been to an Apple Store, apparently. It is a pleasure to shop there, once you have decided that you want a computer at a high enough quality point to justify the price (if you want a cheap Mac, you need a used one - and even they hold their value). In my experience the staff is competent and helpful, and don't pressure you to go upscale. They aren't, can't possibly be, on commission.So you aren't ignored or talked down to or confronted with ignorance, and you aren't pressured - what's not to like?
Who said they did? You'll also find Mini-Apple stores in most Best Buy Stores as well. Each Best Buy has a couple of Apple employees to staff the store as well. Apple chooses it's authorized retail selling partners very carefully.
It's a computer, not a religion.
You know, the only people who keep claiming that Mac users are cultists and treat their computers as religious idols are WINDOWS users who really have no experience except Windows.
Oh, and they do repairs there, too. Not exactly what you'd look for in a Walmart.
I have actually had them try to talk me down. I had to say no, I have the money and I have the lust for the MacBook Pro hand it over.
Really... my first computer was a PDP8 ... mac IS a cult..
When did you last use an OS X Mac?
Yes, but eventually, if the trend continues Worldwide Widget Company will overtake Mega Widget Company in sales.
Apple's sustained sales numbers are an indicator of growth momentum. The contrast of the actual numbers only serves to show how much more room Apple has to grow. Consider that Apple's market are both new computer buyers and switchers from Windows to Mac. The PC computer companies aren't really competing to get Apple users to switch to Windows. They're trying to win as many of the new computer buyers as possible while trying to keep current customers from switching to Apple Macintosh. So Apple has the greater growth potential of the three top PC makers and the business model that is working. Go figure.
Ubuntu, it’s free.
Yep, can’t say I’d ever buy a Mac, but no doubt Vista has made a lot of PC buyers think twice. When XP becomes useless, all my boxes go to Linux.
. . . but eventually, if the trend continues, Worldwide Widget Company will overtake Mega Widget Company in sales.their actual number of units sold are 1,100 to 4.
Fine post. I would address the issue of whether the trend will continue by looking at the big - or is it the small? picture of Jobs' strategic vision. Which is that as Moore's Law plays out on the hardware side, the software side is your primary limitation. So Jobs started out from the belief in Unix, a full-blown operating system rather than something which would fit on an early PC with, by big iron standards of that era, de minimus memory and processing speed. That belief resulted in Jobs' making an elegant break from the OS style of the microcomputer past to a Unix implemented on the the current physically small "big iron" computers that will fit, not merely in a tower Mac Pro computer or in a laptop or even a Macbook Air but in an iPhone (and as, and probably not if, they identify value in doing so, in a tiny iPod in the not-so-distant future).Having engineered the transition by making the first OS X macs capable of running legacy software as well as Unix software and by helping the developers switch to OS X with major development aids, and by switching to Intel and thereby enabling Parallels and Boot camp, Jobs has put AAPL in the catbird seat. Microsoft is in an excruciating position. They could transition their legacy base in some fashion similar to Jobs' coup, switching to a more elegant solution much like Unix/OS X (or perhaps something even more elegant is out there) but in so doing they would place every user at a decision point where it could easily make more sense merely to switch to mac/OS X able to run Parallels than to follow the Microsoft migration path.
Having gone (physically) small with the iPod and the iPhone and its distinct strength in laptops, Jobs now assays to fill in the high-performance end with Snow Leopard. Which basically will be a consolidation upgrade which will enable developers (including Apple itself) to more readily exploit to the fullest all the data processing capabilities of a given mac and ultimately of a given iPhone/iPod Touch. Success in that effort will tend to make it practical to apply OS X to everything from an iPod to a supercomputer.
So Apple is setting the standard not merely in its stylish hardware but in consistent and elegant software across the spectrum of hardware. All while setting the standard in what Alvin Toffler called a "high touch" with its Apple Stores. The conclusion is that as presently constituted AAPL is the kind of company that should be eating the lunch of a Microsoft.
I’m responding from my new IMac. I made the switch three weeks ago. I’ve been a Microsoft user since my first PC and we run Microsoft products at work. After a couple of day’s adjustment learning the system, I find myself wishing we had Apples at work.
I’m responding from my new IMac. I made the switch three weeks ago. I’ve been a Microsoft user since my first PC and we run Microsoft products at work. After a couple of day’s adjustment learning the system, I find myself wishing we had Apples at work.
The kicker is that a comfortable Apple Store makes over four times the money per square foot than Best Buy makes with its crowded aisles. IIRC, Tiffany's comes closest although still far behind. People are always talking about the technical and marketing achievements behind Apple, but there's the added aspect of having reinvented the retail business.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.