Apple Market Share

[danf63]

I found this on Macdailynews.com: Apple's home market share has risen to 7.6% from 3.2% in 2004.

Dan

[Gregg]

That's over 100% better!

[jcarter]

More and more of my friends who are required to use the company PCs at work, are purchasing Macs for their homes and families.

ANd I just caught this on the Motley Fool site,
3 Reasons to Buy Apple Now
By Georges Yared June 15, 2007
52 Recommendations


So we just got a nice $10 correction on Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Maybe some folks were disappointed that Steve Jobs didn't do backflips at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Whatever it was, Apple is back from its frothy highs, and now we can start talking again about good reasons to buy the stock. I have three for you, and none of them involves the iPhone.

Let's stand up to the hype, right here, right now: The iPhone has not contributed a nickel's worth of revenues yet. It won't even be released until June 29, and revenue contribution won't begin until the quarter that ends in September. For that matter, revenue won't be significant at all until fiscal 2008 -- which doesn't begin until Oct. 1.

Now, with that out of the way ...

Reason No. 1
The press has overlooked the significance of the Safari Web browser for Windows. This critical release is all part of Apple's plan to increase market share for Macs. There are already 22 million Macs out there, but having Windows-friendly Web capability makes the potential computer buyer that much more comfortable going the Mac route. In just two days, there have been more than a million downloads of Safari for Windows! Apple doesn't want to hand over any business to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), but it's obviously confident with the new Mac's stunning features. I'm thinking future market-share gains beyond its 5% share position.

Reason No. 2
You haven't lived until you've heard a Frenchman pronounce "iPod": Donne-moi un 'epod.' And there are a lot more people out there -- in France and elsewhere -- left to sell to. Sure, the company commands a market share north of 70% in the MP3-device market, and with iPod sales having topped the 100 million mark a few months back, that means there are only about 140 million or so MP3 units in existence worldwide. That's a pittance when you consider the viable user population. The iPod has a long way to go in the marketplace before we start hearing the ugly "S" word -- saturation. Pricing of the various types of units has held up like a rock, in spite of the coming iPhone's iPod capabilities. And let's not forget that Apple has sold more than 2.5 billion downloads from its iTunes store. Talk about recurring revenues! No, Apple ain't done with the iPod, folks.

Reason No. 3
Apple has an incredible base of 177 retail stores, 20 of which lie outside the United States. For 2006, Apple was averaging nearly $4,400 in revenues per selling square foot -- that's the highest in the retail industry. The beauty of its retail model is its ability to totally capture the customer's technology budget and loyalty. Sure, customers walk in just to browse, but they often leave an hour or so later with a bagful of goodies in tow. That's how it works. The customer belongs to Apple, soup to nuts. The sales staff is superbly trained in both aesthetics and the technical details. And the stores will be like a magnet when the iPhone is available on June 29, so the opportunity for add-on sales of other Apple products will become very high.

Rumor has it that the store traffic has already picked up dramatically since Apple began advertising the iPhone. A senior sales associate at the Apple store in Minnesota's gargantuan Mall of America told me, bluntly, "Christmas for us began here in June. It just ticks off the other retailers around us!"

Bottom line
There you have it. I haven't even mentioned that Apple's gross and operating margins are juicy and sustainable for the foreseeable future. Nor did I tell you that the several portfolio managers I regularly talk to from a previous life are still buying the stock for the long term. Five of them in particular have $200-$225 price targets for calendar 2008.

But that's fodder for another column. I'm stopping at my promised three reasons this time around.

More Foolish thought:

Will You Recognize the Next Apple?
100 Million Reasons to Envy Apple
What Will 2007 Hold for Apple?


Jane

[kbeartx]

One thing that has bothered me for some time about the very nature of this ongoing 'Market Share' topic/discussion is that the numbers periodically reported are based on the number of units sold in the quarter just past, not the number of people who are regularly, consistently using Macs for their computing.

While it IS encouraging that Mac sales are increasing recently, IMO what would be REALLY useful to know is this:

How many ppl in the US [and other countries] are using a Mac as their main computer?

[jcarter]

That would be an interesting statistic, but perhaps a bit difficult to pinpoint.  The sales information is indicative of people buying new Macs, but how many of these are new Mac owners?  Or how many are just replacing and adding, as our family is doing.
But I do know a lot of people who have Macs at home and PCs at work.
Yes, I would love to see the latest info on this too.  I do know that our little local independent Mac store has trouble keeping up, and theyve opened two new branches.
Looking good from what I see, but we are only one little region with a lot of educational people who tend towards Macs.  But a lot of new Mac owners amongst our friends and neighbours.
Jane

[sandbox]

Mr K, this wiki is an outstanding piece of work, one I think you’ll appreciate.

Section on = Market share and demographics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Macintosh
Only 500,000 Macs had been sold by September 1985.

By 1997, there were more than 20 million Mac users, compared to an installed base of around 340 million Windows PCs.[16][17] Statistics from late 2003 indicate that Apple had 2.06% of the desktop share in the United States, which had increased to 2.88% by Q4 2004.[18] As of October, 2006, research firms IDC and Gartner reported that Apple's market share in the U.S. had increased to about 6%.[19] The latest figures, from December 2006, showing a market share around 6% (IDC) and 6.1% (Gartner) are based on a >30% increase in unit sale from 2005 to 2006.

[jcarter]

I just read this in the latest MacWorld,,,,
"For the second fiscal quarter of 2007, Apple shipped 1.517 million Macs. thats 36% more than it had in the same time period last year."

That link you sent, its a great article, thanks,
jane

[Gregg]

QUOTE(kbeartx @ Jun 24 2007, 05:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

While it IS encouraging that Mac sales are increasing recently, IMO what would be REALLY useful to know is this:

How many ppl in the US [and other countries] are using a Mac as their main computer?

Good point. Get a Mac, keep it.

Get tired of broken Windows, get a Mac.