The Apple rally
Picture saw on brandinfection thanks to Robert Scoble on Twitter (see twitt here saying “Microsoft should really be freaked out”). I hear here and there that one out of five laptop sold is a Mac in 2007.
This is massive considering the bulk of the enterprise market consumes PCs: it basically means Apple wins 30% – 35% of the consumer laptop market in 2007.
What the picture doesn’t say though is that one could take thousands of pictures showing PC-only rooms. In this very case, it seems Apple has struck a deal with the relevant high school to make sure every student has a Mac laptop.
But I still bet it would’ve been impossible to take such a picture 5 or even 3 years ago. Good job Mister Jobs…
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I’ve seen this picture in numerous places on the internet, and I can’t see why it’s such a shock. You’re exactly right in your numbers: 30 to 35 percent marketshare does not a juggernaut make. Also, there are more than a few pictures of Windows-based PC’s filling up entire rooms. Microsoft has nothing to worry about.
Some context, this picture is from US, Missouri School of Journalism. Take a look at: http://journalism.missouri.edu/undergraduate/computer-requirements.html
But in my experience, Mac laptops are quite popular around here too. Far more interesting would be to know the reasons. It’s too easy to say that “Mac just works” or “Vista sucks”, when the most common question I get asked is “is there Office for Mac?”.
“Microsoft has nothing to worry about.”
Okay, fine. Let me remind you a couple of simple facts :
- back in the 70’s, Ford and GM had nothing to worry about. Look their numbers today…
- back in the 80’s, IBM had nothing to worry about. Look what’s Big Blue is selling today…
- back in the late 90’s, Yahoo! had nothing to worry about. Look who’s doing $600 a share today.
- back in the early 2k’s, Google (the $600 one) had nothing to worry about. Look at the hype around Facebook those days.
Lesson : such a statement, ” [market leader] has nothing to worry about ” is one of the most common yet damageable mistake committed in business.
On the contrary, any market leader must worry about keeping its leadership position. Read Sun Tzu to understand why, and how.
Last : back in the Ancient Times, Dinosaurs had nothing to worry about. Look where they are now.
“30 to 35 percent marketshare does not a juggernaut make.”
It does when for the last 20 years or so you have been running at a 5% market share.
“Microsoft has nothing to worry about.”
From Apple, your quite right. Mac’s can run Windows happily and many do. Apple is happy though as it is firstly a hardware company. Microsoft has more to worry about from its own business decisions and stupidity. Oh yeah, and Vista. Dell and the other PC manufacturers are the ones who should be worried about Apple.
As Marc Duchesne right pointed out though, there is a plethora of companies in the graveyard from reacting too slowly and ineffectively to changing competition. To add to Marc’s list:
- Swiss watch makers in the late 60’s didn’t react to the cheaper Japanese quartz watches. They lost 90% market share in just over a year.
Microsoft won’t have that sort of turn around, but it has to watch what it is doing. Vista has hardly been inspiring with many “upgrading” to XP. The XBox 360 had a 40% failure rate and the latest Zune offerings offer nothing over the iPod classic and nanos and don’t even come close to the iPod touch. Their online music store is not a patch on iTunes. Not what you would expect from one of the biggest companies in the world.
Just some food for thought.
This true fact : I’ve got a brand new Dell Latitude D520 at work. Guess what : 1) it’s running XP Pro, not Vista, 2) it’s got a external PCMCIA card for WiFi. Shall I be Ballmer, I would be worried about such of disaster : how come my latest OS is still not mainstream after a year or so on the market, how come an OEM partner still don’t embed commodity features such as WiFi…
“Microsoft has many things to learn from its many rivals. They’re going to learn the hard way.” Sun Tzu.
Here’s another story how use of Mac is on the rise: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2007/10/05/news/18871.shtml
Anyone still thinking Apple is not a hardware company? =)
Loved this photo