| Mr Puggsly said: I believe the articles saying Apple has 10% of the PC market are just looking at the US. I'm having trouble finding a world market share because those articles include iOS devices. Basically, the internet is a clusterfuck of articles boasting about Apple and not giving the information I'm actually looking for. Anyhow, MS has been promoting Windows 8 for about a year now. The release of that should boost PC sales. You're correct. Devices like the iPod, iPhone and iPad were successful primarily because they were better than the competition. However, when those devices launched the competition wasn't very good to begin with. Now that strong competition appeared, Apple is losing market share fast in the mobile market. Hence, Apple did amazing in markets with weak competition. But they never proved they can be a powerhouse in a market that already has strong competition. Apple's televisions aren't just going to be competing with cheaper televisions. But they also have to compete with devices that connect to the television. AppleTV needs to do more than give us access to streaming media and play some games. So I'm curious to see what Apple has up their sleeve. |
This article claims that Apple crested 5% worldwide PC share in September of 2011:
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/11/17/explosive-growth-takes-the-mac-to-over-5-global-market-share/
You'll also note that they control 14% of the worldwide PC profit. Given how badly Mac's marketshare worldwide is dragged down by developing nations, that's still an impressive number. Overall, I don't see how they could have done much better with any of their major lines (Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad) over the past decade, particularly their Mac line. As you said, the iOS markets lacked strong competition. But in the PC market, Apple has made impressive in-roads into an extremely competitive and budget-based marketspace. They've done it through staying ahead of the curve in design and implementation.
Again, the iTV/AppleTV will need to really hit the market hard with good ideas and innovative content. Is Apple up to the task? Dunno, but given how they've been barn-storming almost every other market they've entered in the past 15 years, it's good bet they have something up their sleeve.
I think the real question concerning Apple is "Will they have any ideas in a post-Jobs world?" I think the iTV will do well; Steve had a strong hand in its primary development. Apple is strong only because they stay ahead of the competition by thinking outside the box. It's how people justify the additional expense of their products. But without a strong hand guiding their way through new product lines with fresh new thinking, they become just another Sony. And that would spell disaster for the company.
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