Apple tries to extend Mac success

Posted Oct 22nd 2007 7:15AM by Douglas McIntyre
Filed under: Industry, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) logo New information out of IDC research suggests that the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Mac accounted for 6.3% of all PC sales in Q3, up from 5.7% in the same quarter a year ago. This would move the company into third place in the U.S. market.

Steve Jobs intends to do what he can to keep Mac sales growing faster than the PC industry as a whole. According to The New York Times, "on Friday, Apple will start selling the new Leopard version of its OS X operating system, which has a range of features that in some cases match those in Windows Vista and in others surpass them." To keep adding features to the OS, Apple plans to upgrade it every eighteen months or so for several years.

But, upgrades will not be enough to continue to push for more market share. Apple is getting some Mac sales because of the public's purchasing of iPods and iPhone. Still, it is difficult to see business and enterprise customers supporting a new OS along with Windows which not only dominates the PC market but rules the server market as well.

Among consumers, the share battle may get more hard-fought. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and other big PC companies are going to need to defend their sales with better product and aggressive pricing. Apple has to face new competition in the U.S. markets from Asia operation Lenovo and Acer.

Apple is about to find that getting more share is tough against entrenched competition.

Tags: aapl, apple, inthenews, iPhone, iPod, Mac, Windows

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-22-2007 @ 7:40AM

Wonkey the Monkey said...

Apple is about to find that getting more share is tough against entrenched competition.

About to find out? What do you think they've been doing for the past 15 years?

10-22-2007 @ 7:03PM

Lee said...

I agree with the first comment. Nothing new there, except Apple is finally getting somewhere with OS X.

Upgrades are one of the biggest things that are going to push Apple into the market. The new Leopard version is a major upgrade. If a business wants to switch to Apple and purchase a new server, they'll find a calendar server, enterprise messaging, mail server, easy configuration and no licensing hell. Things are looking good for Apple.

10-22-2007 @ 9:32AM

What are you smoking? said...

What's this about 'entrenched competition'?

Apple is dominant in

- music
- high quality, reliable desktop and pocket OSs (Vista and Win Mobile aren't playing here.)
- high quality, reliable, entrancing smartphones
- high quality, reliable media downloads

What have you been smoking?

10-22-2007 @ 12:31PM

Beltway Greg said...

$1.05/share. Split to follow.

Beltway Greg
"Her lips were waiting her eyes were sad the dreams of a lifetime a year gone bad. Please be strong I know I'm not wrong."

Fleetwood Mac.

10-23-2007 @ 9:32AM

Ray said...

Wake up and smell the coffee, Doug!

Mac sales were 2.16 million this past qtr. Fifty percent of in-store Mac purchases are made by first-time Mac-users. What do you suppose they *were* using? It's not a matter of Apple maintaining the trend. it's who's going to stop them, and what are they going to stop them with? Acer? Vista?

Think how silly you're going to feel when you read your post a year from now...