Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has had tremendous success in the digital music player and now cellphone markets. Starting with the iPod and (not) ending with the iPhone, the company has been a force -- if not the force -- in consumer electronics this year. But, was it all to get more customers buying Apple's computer products? That argument -- known as a the halo effect -- has been drawn up in countless articles and blog posts. Surprise, surprise -- it is most likely working.The market share Apple's Macintosh computer products have been seeing has taken the Cupertino, Calif., company from a single-digit slice of the PC market to a force to be reckoned with in 2007. In a November report from research firm ChangeWave Research, the data indicates that more potential buyers than ever plan to buy a Mac in the near future. Is Steve Jobs dancing in his office? Probably not -- this has been part of his plan for more than just a few years. After all, capture them with marketing and surround them with your other products behind the competitor's back, huh Steve?
In the research, 29% of survey respondents who planned on buying a computer in the next three months indicated that they would buy a Mac laptop, with an additional 29% saying that a Mac desktop system was in their future. For laptop numbers, Macs were ahead of Dell (NASDAQ: DELL)'s 28% and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ)'s 21%. In the desktop side, Mac systems were right below Dell's 31% at 29%, with HP coming in at 24%. Wow. Is Apple's halo starting to grow larger and larger? Sure, under the carefully planned guise of iThis and iThat.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-14-2007 @ 7:37PM
bullit said...
ANYBODY WITH HALF A BRAIN CAN SEE THE TREMENDOUS MOMENTUM BEHIND APPLE'S PRODUCTS. PC USERS CAN DEFEND THEIR ARCHAIC POSITION TO IT'S SUPERIORIY TO ANYTHING MAC RELATED BUT IT FALLS ON DEAF EARS. EACH TIME MAC IS BASHED BY A BLOGGER, THEY ARE ONLY GIVING JOBS AND CO MORE PUBICILITY. KEEP THE NEGATIVITY COMING. YOUR PLAYING RIGHT INTO JOBS GOAL OF HEARING THE WORD APPLE ON THE WEB, GOOD OR BAD. ITS CALLED FREE SUBCONSCIOUS PUPLICITY. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME,GO TO YOUR NEAREST APPLE STORE, THEN VISIT THE DELL KIOSK IN THE MALL. MARKET SHARE IS SLOWLY ERODING AND THATS THE PRUDENT WAY TO CAPTURE IT, TACTICALLY AND SLOWLY. IN A COUPLE OF YEARS APPLE COULD EASILY HAVE 13 - 14 PERCENT OF THE PC MARKET. THIS COMPANY IS A STREAMROLLER WAITING TO RUN OVER ANYTHING IN ITS WAY. FINALLY, JUST REMEMBER THAT JOBS ALWAYS HAS SOMETHING UP HIS SLEEVE. BELIEVE ME, HE'S MUCH STARTER THAN ANYONE WHO HAS THE GUTS TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG.
12-15-2007 @ 8:13PM
Michael said...
Anyone with half a brain can figure out how to operate a keyboard, and know where the caps lock or unlock is. Bullit's post reflects badly on mac users. Disregard people who need a megaphone to make their point.
12-14-2007 @ 10:16PM
fog city dave said...
Hey bullit.. stop SHOUTING.
12-15-2007 @ 1:55PM
Chaz said...
to michael and fog city dave . . . what does it matter
if caps are on or off, the message is clear and if it falls on your deaf ears, so be it, the world will evolve without
you and be better for it !
12-15-2007 @ 8:22PM
Michael said...
The whole "us vs. them" mac zealotry is boring.
The small but vocal minority of intolerant, irrational, foaming-at-the-mouth, all-caps-typing brainwashed cult members give the rest of us Apple users (the majority) a bad name. Great article at CNET about this:
"there is no question that Macintosh users are by far the most passionate advocates for their products in the technology industry. And while such passion is remarkable and even moving, it can also be terribly disturbing....aggressive behavior is not indicative of Mac users as a whole. But that very noisy, hardcore crowd distorts the issues and inflames the discussion, to the point where a rational look at Apple and its products becomes a quest to decide The World's One True Religion, which never seems to work out so well in the real world...This religious argument is very 1995; it's time to move on."
http://www.news.com/one-more-thing/8301-13579_3-9832697-37.html