You know, I never thought I would have ever seen this kind of an article in PC Mag, but here it is and it speaks volumes.
“The fact of the matter is that this is simply the Mac’s time. When we do, eventually, look back—and a decade or so from now, we’ll try to pinpoint the moment when Apple’s Macintosh and OS X began to pick up significant steam.
Was it when OS X first launched, or the arrival of the first all-in-one, flat-panel iMac? Perhaps it was the moment when Apple chose Intel (and maybe Intel chose Apple)? Maybe it was the lackluster launch and sales performance of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system?” The rest of Lance Ulanoff’s PC Mag article is here.
Rafael Ruffolo of ITWorldCanada imparted another interesting data point to me when we spoke yesterday:
“According to Q2 results from IDC, in the overall U.S. computer market, which includes desktops and notebooks, Apple is now tied for third with competitor Gateway at 5.6 per cent of the total market share.” You can find the rest of Rafael’s article here.
WOW!
At this specific point it’s not really Microsoft that needs to be scared of Apple – it’s the other hardware manufactures that need to worry. Steve Jobs is really executing on his “control the whole widget” strategy.
The hardware is gorgeous, the un-boxing experience is sublime, the user-experience is second to none, the total cost of ownership is lower, the risk is almost nil (thanks to bootcamp, Parallels and VMware) and then there is the tons of free and very useful software that Apple includes. These arguments are strong, the benefits compelling and most importantly, no other PC vendor has this kind of arsenal!
So what are the other manufacturers going to do? They will go where Apple isn’t, they’ll compete for the low ground, the low end of the market where the margins are slim. Apple will continue to toil on the high ground, continue to skim market share away and continue to amass boat loads of cash.
Ever wonder what Steve Jobs will do with all that cash at his disposal (US 13.7 Billion at last count)?
Until next time…
AJ
