Comments on: Does Apple Have a “91 Percent” Share of the High-End?

By: NUNZIO Bagliere

NUNZIO Bagliere — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:47:46 +0000

I enjoy being a C.E.O of my company world wide and my staff enjoy Apple and for security reasons that are protected on OSX . From Nunzio Bagliere Syracuse N.Y

By: Tom Reestman

Tom Reestman — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:21:31 +0000

James,

You’re so right. This article should have been just the last two paragraphs. They’re all that mattered.

Instead, we’re slicing the data six ways from Sunday to reach a 91% figure that’s meaningless anyway.

I opened this door, so it’s my bad.

By: mark

mark — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:45:35 +0000

Tom,
You missed more than half of my argument. The data is just US. The data is just retail stores. So not the worldwide 60+m PCs, or 2.6m Macs.

The data is also just June, when as Apple said, the white MacBook was cannibalized by the new MacBook Pro. And there’s no way that white MacBooks and Mac minis total 23% of Macs sold; remember that Mac ASP is close to 1300 for the quarter.

Gartner estimated 1.4m Macs sold in the US in the quarter (not June). And 14.9m PCs (excluding Macs), For PCs, some large % are corporate and direct sales. Some % is online sales. Let’s say 4m are sold in retail stores in qtr. 14%, or very likely more, are netbooks (since netbooks sold via corporate and direct sales are probably negligible). Go from there…

By: isulzer

isulzer — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:13:17 +0000

Gah!! This argument is silly. Yes the 91% is meaningless, pretty much. All it tells you(in context) is that the purchasing habits of consumers at big retail stores are to buy cheap PCs and expensive macs.

The data does not include sales from sites like Dell.com and Apple.com(or corporate, or homebrews). This is guaranteed to skew things. It may be that consumers who buy expensive PCs use direct order, while those who purchase expensive macs run off to the store.

If you had a number that included all pcs sold, then that would be meaningful.

By: James Dempsey

James Dempsey — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:34:10 +0000

The most important question to ask here, and the one I **believe** Tom was getting at with the article is:

“WHO FREAKING CARES?”

Honestly, these cost debates are about as turd-filled as a Mac vs. PC argument between two die-hard users of each platform.

By: NUNZIO Bagliere

NUNZIO Bagliere — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:52:31 +0000

TAKE A BYTE OUT OF APPLE FROM NUNZIO BAGLIERE SYRACUSE N.Y

By: Tom Reestman

Tom Reestman — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:11:34 +0000

Mark,

Thanks for the analysis, here is why I disagree:

- According to IDC, worldwide PC shipments for the last quarter were 68.15M. (This figure is not definitive, but close enough for our purpose.)
- We know from Apple’s earnings call they sold 2.6M Macs during the same quarter.

How may of the Macs were over $1K? Apple doesn’t say, but the white MacBook (very popular) and Mac minis are under that. Let’s say they accounted for 600,000 units, so 2M Macs were over $1K.

If that 2M represents 91% of the “over $1K” market, the total must be around 2.2M units. So, out of over 68M PCs sold only 200,000 were over $1K? No way I believe that.

This is why I think it’s about counting revenue over the $1K threshold, not the PCs themselves. Sure, of the 68M PC sold most were under (heck, well under) $1K, but I think a lot more than 200,000 crossed that threshold.

By: mark

mark — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:36:45 +0000

Just want to add that if you include corporate sales and online sales, then the 91 percent would not be correct.

One other point: Just look at the Amazon computer sales ranking. You have to go pretty far down the list to find a PC over $1000.

By: mark

mark — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:34:16 +0000

I think the 9 out of 10 computers (costing over $1000) are Macs is believable. Here’s why:
1. NPD data is based on retail store sales only (60 retailers, 17000 stores across US). Most over-$1000 PCs are bought by corporations, and not at retail stores. How many over $1000 PCs do you see carried and advertised at retail stores? Retail stores generally carry stock of only the highest volume PC models, which generally cost less than $800.
2. Almost all Macs are over $1000, even for those at retail stores. As you wrote, the ASP at retail stores was $1400.
3. MS said almost 14% of PCs sold (in the qtr) were netbooks, which mostly sell for less than $400, and many of which are sold at retail stores. Corporations generally don’t buy netbooks.
4. The ASP for all PCs (at retail stores) was $515.

If you make some assumptions about the division of the 16M PCs sold (Gartner est) in the qtr into corporate sales, online sales, and retail store sales, and if you assume the retailers include Apple Store, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, MicroCenter, Frys, Staples, etc., then doing the math, one can come to the conclusion that of those PCs sold costing more than $1000, 9 out of 10 are Macs.

By: DWes

DWes — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:46:26 +0000

Many corps buy $2000+ computers thinking they’re getting something better. And most of those computers aren’t Macs. I’d be surprised if either the revenue share or market share for Apple are 90%. But I’d also be surprised if Apple doesn’t make more money per computer than anybody else.