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Macs Defy Windows' Gravity
News Analysis. Consider this: Apple's retail market share is 14 percent, and two-thirds for PCs costing $1,000 or more.
Should I repeat those numbers? The share data is for first-quarter brick-and-mortar stores, as tabulated by the NPD Group. Apple's market share is but one measure of success. Sales growth is way up, while Windows desktop PC sales are way down.
"In notebooks they're growing two times the market," said Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis. "Windows notebooks are pretty much flat right now."
For the first quarter, Windows notebooks had "zero percent" growth year over year, Stephen said. By comparison, Apple notebooks had "50 to 60 percent growth."
On the desktop, "They're up 45 percent," he continued. "The [overall] market is down 20 percent. Windows desktops would be down 25 percent." The figures are also for first quarter.
I spoke with Stephen earlier this afternoon. He remarked: "iMacs are growing and the Windows desktop ain't. No matter how you look at it, Apple is outperforming Windows."
A statement like that raises the question: Is Windows Vista the problem? The operating system has met with a cool reception, even with Microsoft claiming 140 million licenses have been shipped.
"I don't believe that Vista's to blame," Stephen responded. "The vast majority of consumers don't care [about the installed operating system]."
I guess that kind of sums up the whole situation!
