A few months ago I wrote that start-ups are missing out a big opportunity by not addressing the Mac market first. Mac users are early adopters and amongst them are many bloggers/media people who can help create the buzz for the product. Apparently someone was listening – Michael Robertson’s latest effort, The Gizmo Project. Jeff Bonforte, CEO of SIP Phone tells me that since they developed the product on a Mac platform, the Gizmo client for Mac is further along in terms of features and stability. As a result, nearly 30% of the downloads for the software are Mac-downloads. Given that Mac is less than 5% of the computer market, it is interesting to see the adoption rates are much higher. I think this is proof for others who are thinking about new software or services. Nothing like a Mac test bed. Given that more and more developers I meet are toting around Powerbooks, this could be an interesting little trend in the making.
They did a nice job of it…Styled somewhat like iChat.
It should probably be the podCasters phone of choice as you don’t have to jump through hoops to record a conversation…unlike Skype.
The “3% Mac marketshare” thing is wholy misleading. If you look at share by personal use or by people who get to choose which computer they use (as opposed to forced by IT), the share is much larger.
While what you’re saying is true, it does only apply to non-enterprise applications for now. Apple has chosen to avoid the whole enterprise market and focus on end-user experience, and it’s only natural to assume that the platform would lead startups to the same direction.
Apple is able to make their users excited about their products, and whatever else that works on them. This excitement is something you can’t get anywhere else and hard to come by.
—–Given that Mac is less than 5% of the computer market, it is interesting to see the adoption rates are much higher—–
actually you are talking about two different things, the Mac Sales every quarter is less than 5% of the computing market, but Apple is only in a small segment of the computing market, in the Home, where Apple actually has a market, Macs represent atleast 10% of the installed base of computers actually being used, especially on the internet.
then if you include the work place, (which your market is probably not in yet) then Mac’s share of installed base drops to less than half this, to about 4%…