At the poker table, someone is always the short stack.

Sometimes the short stacked guy wins.

You think their high prices have something to do with it?

wow, all I can think of to say is...bwahahahahaha!
Ahem, anyway, atleast we have the iPhone.

What is so important about market share? I'm not going to skip upgrading to a new BMW because my favorite car company only has a 6 to 7% market share. I'm fine with my favorite computer company having a small market share, so long as the quality and usability remain high.

@joe23521: I think the high prices definitely have something to do with the 900 million dollar net profit they made! As far as market share is concerned now Is a good time to buy into the apple machine before they reach a 10% threshold.

When you look at market share statistics you have to pay really close attention to what they're actually measuring.

In August Mac commanded 17.6% of the U.S. notebook computer market, and notebooks are now bigger than desktops at least in the non-business market.
[www.macworld.com]

The thing to keep in mind is that while Apple sells hardly any computers to businesses, they've been taking huge share in the consumer market. That's why their overall share can look so puny, that and the fact that mac's are way more popular in America than in the rest of the world.

Ummm WTF IS GOING ON? APPLES STOCK IS UP 12 POINTS?
[finance.google.com]

I think the differing numbers from IDC are for only the US market. Globally, HP has higer market share than Dell. The IDC numbers do not reflect this.

@joe23521: It's not that their prices are high, but that they don't target the low-end market. Also, they target the consumer market, whereas Dell and HP are largely business, although HP is making great strides in the consumer market (at Dell's expense). I think a consumer vs. business comparison of sales would be more telling.

How is over a quarter of HP's market share a tiny sliver? Furthermore, why does HP have such a large share? Institutional clients. There will be a point where institutions feel safe adopting Apple infrastructure and the numbers will jump.

Also, why not calculate out the amount of time at current growth rate Apple will overtake HP? That'd be interesting and all the data is presumable there.

I don't believe that Apple will ever reach a really high percentage with it's business model. Nor, do I believe that they would want to. My company gets bids for computer supplies like any other resource. Competition between suppliers keeps our prices down. We cannot get stuck with Apple hardware that can only be replaced from one place no matter how pretty or simple the OS.

Don't forget Acer. With the acquisition of Gateway, they'r growing quite a bit.

What's really funny, is that Apple is almost worth more than both of those bitches combined.

lol

I'm content to be an Apple user without worrying about them being in the single digits for market share.

If you throw out enterprise/corporate sales, my guess would be Apple is right in the mix...I know plenty of people using Dell/HP at work, but have Macs at home.

There's no mystery here. Apple's recent success is pretty much all in the consumer market. When you factor in business and other world markets there is still a lot of room for growth.

Yet Apple has a higher market cap than Dell and HP.

I agree. I know I'm Apple fanboy and I have 3 computers right now. My mother needs a computer and I'm getting her a Dell its just easier and she need its for office work.

@deanr: It's not like that at all. You can have a one-off car and be happy with it and love it to death. Fine, okay, it's a car. But computers need compatible hardware and software - if you have a one of a kind computer, you ain't gettin' no support. With a Mac, many software titles still don't show love for the Mac platform, and when something goes wrong in your box you can't just replace parts all willy nilly from Newegg or do a motherboard upgrade when component manufacturers start supporting 8, 16, 32gb of RAM. To fix it you must bring your box to an Apple store and have them fix it for you at exorbitant costs ($700 for a logic board?!), and forget about motherboard upgrades, you have to buy a brand new computer if you want 16gb of RAM, and you have to wait until Apple decides to have a release party claiming they were the first to do 16gb of RAM.

Yes, Apple's share is rising, but if it ever gets above 20% it would be a horrible day coming for the DIY and "I'm too poor so I DIY" crowds. It would mean less hardware availability and innovation from the OEMs.

After reading the post, I do still not have a clear idea of what the author pretends to demonstrate.

The proportion between Apple sales and the rest of the world's computer manufacturers sales means nothing. That is not the way you define market share.

If you take into account the segmentation of consumer computing market, the results might be different.

What means that Ferrari has a tough 0,5% in the global car market? Has it something to do with product quality? Does it make them a less serious competitor of, say, Aston Martin?

Do you think that Apple's spectrum of the market is the same than Dell's?

@nimbus:
wahta!?
not.

[bwnt.businessweek.com]

It's not the size of your market, it's how you use it.

@scarbrtj: Actually the short stacked player almost always loses. You should watch more WPT! It's edukashunal.

@The Lab: Apple will probably never overtake HP or Dell. It's a matter of "whats used in the workplace." Until companies start using Apple wares to run their business this can never happen.

@Canadian Impostor:
as someone (Peter Burrows) put it... "Now, I realize Dell is nearly four times Apple's size--and size is a major determinant of market cap. But if you don't have big honking growth markets waiting to be harvested, size can be a heavy anchor indeed. The math is simple. To deliver 15% growth in the upcoming year, $55 billion-a-year Dell has to find $8.25 billion in extra sales. But Apple, at $13.9 billion in overall sales, would have to find just $2 billion.
In Tech company standings HP and Dell are 1 2 Apple 20.

They're growing at a much faster rate, though, especially in the U.S., at a time when PC sales have been slowing down.

@The Lab:
Growth rate does not work that way. Its based on more then just percents. What apple is doing is defaintly consuming more of the hardcore market, it is still WAY out of the price range for most american families, not to mention the international business market. Unless apple is willing to play the price arms race in the lower end market then they will never expand past 10%.

@scarbrtj:
WTF? Please do NOT compare this with gambling. Although business could be gambling, but there is an underlying technological difference in the computer world that can't be overcome. What I mean is that Apple is short stacked because we don't like it.

@nimbus:
Please provide data before I believe you.

Apple making inroads into the business world is a long, long ways away.

I can't think of any enterprise level software that runs on OSX.

Growth is as important as the actual share, if not more.

Another thing to consider is Apple's share of the "market that matters," or the most profitable market, is much, much higher than its overall share. Take this estimate, for example: [www.psfk.com]

There is little point in talking about 'world wide market share.' Yes PCs have finally reached 80+% of households. How did they do it? Old PCs being given to grand parents, etc..

A better metric would be % of new desktop sales. And as multiple people have pointed out an even better metric would % of new home desktop sales (to excluded big companies buying 100+ dells in a single shot)

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..huh wazzat more Apple news? zzzzzzzzz...

;) Seriously doe sit matter? Apple continues to provieds their hardware at a premium well above its worth - the Apple fanboys (TM) continue to buy it at that and the PC fanboys (TM) will continue to avoid it primarily for that reason. I doubt there will be a serious change in that market share (give or take a few % pts) until Apple makes it more affordable to the average joe.

@nimbus:

From Fortune 500 (Revenues in Millions):
Hewlitt Packard $91,658
Dell $57,095
Apple $19,315

Get a clue.

last quarter sales or install base?

As the article reads, in the echo chamber of the blogsphere is where apple appears to dominate. The only people who really care to comment are those who want to defend apple.
I use pc's, and never will use a mac if I can help it. I am a network technician who would not have been hired if I had went the way of the mac when I was learning.
Not that there is anything wrong with macs, but the world is dominated by windows based OS's, and for me (a shareware freak) there is just not enough compatibility between the two to ever sway me.
As some have said, who cares what their market share is, if you like your mac then more power to ya. It doesn't have to be a competition.

I think Nimbus was referring to the market cap. But even that, he's dead wrong.

Here are facts from Google Finance, easily verified (AAPL and DELL):

Apple earns about 50% more profit than Dell on a quarter of the sales.
Apple sales tripled in the past 3 years, while Dell's increased only 50%.

Investors want large, fast-growing profits. Apple has that, and Dell doesn't.

How can Apple do this? Because their products are cheaper for anyone who places value on their time. Again, some facts for comparison.

The cheapest Mac laptop you can buy is $1100. A comparably equipped Dell Inspiron is about $900 (you have to go through their configurator and choose an OS).

So, Dell is $200 cheaper. Except that the Mac works right out of the box with all your peripherals, while the Dell requires a few hours of fiddling around with drivers.

Let's say that over the 2-year life of the computer, you spend 2 hours with initial Dell setup and a half hour a month of fiddling with Windows and drivers. This is very, very conservative, for anyone who knows Windows. So over the life of the computer you spend 14 extra hours fiddling. Divide $200 by 14 and get $14.28.

Conclusion: if your time is worth more than $14.28 per hour (about what you would make working at In'n'Out Burger in California), then you save money on the Mac.

Thew fewer Macs out in the wild, the less appealing of a target they are viruses to be written for them. I'll take it.

@deanr: the car analogy is a good one (although i'm definitely NOT an apple fantard... i linux). dell and company sell a full line of computers for business, home, servers, etc. apple is basically focused on high-end, design-centric customers (exactly like bmw or mercedes). there is plenty of room in the marketplace for both imo, just like there is plenty of room for 3 (or even more!) operating systems. someday we can maybe even all be friends... :)

Here are facts from Google Finance, easily verified (AAPL and DELL):

Apple earns about 50% more profit than Dell on a quarter of the sales.
Apple sales tripled in the past 3 years, while Dell's increased only 50%.

Investors want large, fast-growing profits. Apple has that, and Dell doesn't.

@Tommasta: What a retarded comment. There is NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING you can do with a PC that I can't do with a Mac. Why? Cause I can run your junk Windoze OS and my MacOS. There is no game I can't play, no software title I can't load. Out of all the apps I use on a daily basis, ZERO I use in Windoze. In fact, I'm starting to feel like Parallels and an old copy of XP was a waste of money! Following the BMW analogy it's simple to see that a Ford has no value when you buy it, which is why American Auto Manufacturers have to sell their products based on how much money they will take off the price. BMW sells based on VALUE of the product FOR the price. HUGE difference. The ford/chevy was worth nothing to begin with, the BMW went for sticker and will resell for more too. Sure, they sell less of them, but no one would argue the quality an VALUE are higher. Most people (especially us Americans) are easy targets for companies like Ford/Chevy/Dell/HP simply because we'll buy anything when we're getting $8000 cash back! Or a whole (junk) computer for $899! When's the last time you saw a blow-out sale at Apple? Never. You've never seen it. iPods don't go on sale. Macs don't go on sale. At BEST, you'll get a free printer or something - but sales detract from the VALUE and the BRAND, whereas giving a free printer adds to the value. Do you get it? Probably not... which is why I use the computer I use and you have Windoze.

You can whine and whine about DIY and 'buying parts on newegg' -but all that shows is how little you really know about Macs. In 17 years of Mac use I have never, NOT ONCE, replaced a part in ANY of my macs. When I want to upgrade, I sell my current Mac and buy a new one. Macs hold their value, unlike a Dell or HP. I sold my 24" white iMac for 95% of what I paid for a year earlier and bought the new Aluminum iMac. The upgrade cost was certainly LESS than buying parts from newegg for a PC and 'doing it myself'.

Your best bet is to quit posting about Macs. You obviously don't use them, and don't 'get' them. And THAT is why I'm thrilled to use Macs with their single digit market share. People like you deserve Windoze, and it's exactly what you get.

First of all you can't compare it to cars. Cars are a lot more expensive than computers and obviously not everyone has a few extra thousand dollars to spend on a fancy cars.

Second I would say that market share is the main thing that should be looked at with computer companies. It doesn't matter how much profit they make, obviously higher sales prices will usually drive up profit. Also I understand the concern about not separating business users from home users when looking at market share. But I am confident that even when looking at only home users the market share will remain at about the same percent.

Simply taking a quick poll for my self. I currently go to college, and a lot of people use their laptops in class. I'd say about out of the 50 students I've seen with a laptop maybe 3 had a macbook. So thats 6 percent right there. And even looking at the desktops of people that I only know one person with a mac desktop at home.

My school actually just recently purchased about 50 macs for our library, and whats a little ironic is that they are all running xp. I guess the mac os doesnt work well with the schools login system.

@bpatten: Revenue not as important as PROFITS. Go back to college.

@bpatten:

Um bpatten...let me get you a clue...

AAPL 161 Billion
HP 139 Billion
Dell 63 Billion

WTF were you saying?

Oh and revenues are nice but lets look at profits shall we munch!

Apple has a P/E of 52.22
HP has a P/E of 20.71
Dell Has currently no P/E because they are delinquent in their SEC filings (hmmmm)

It was 23.1 last time it was measured....ALL WAY SHORT of APPLE.

By the way...since you obviously know nothing about business. It only matters what you keep. As can be seen Apple is whooping the hog shiat outta these two.
Nana :P

@pcs800:

Yeah...well your a WINDOWS tech...see Macs run Unix...and if you really knew anything about networking you would know wtf unix/linux is....you sir fail.

Going along with what PCS800 says, it is not a competition. Steve & Bill said at D5 that it is no longer a competition. Not to mention that new macs (as of this friday) are also PCs... I agree that apple can change some of its prices to become more mainstream, but what some of you may not realize is that apple is not just a hunk of glass metal and plastic... it is a service that offers a place to belong as well as a place to grow. they offer personal training at a rate of less than $2 for a 1hr on any proffessional application. They offer complete setups for computer when you buy them. they have dedicated staff that isnt outsourcced to help with problems.... need i go on? you cant compare dell and apple by market share alone.

and dont call me a fanboy. even if i am.

@zippyZ:

Thanks for owning that fool. I see a log of "jizz"modos don't know wtf they are talking about when it comes to Apple.

Apple is donkey punching Dell's worth, and this is just the beginning. Leopard isn't even out, the iPhone isn't world wide yet, and there's more to come.

Prepare for perpetual pwnage ya pansy pants.

@MACPollo:

I love Gizmodo, but I've noticed when an issue requires some level of serious analysis beyond the actual gadgets, it tends to fall a short. I'm not saying they SHOULD be good at it, it's not generally what they do. But it shows when they over-reach.

@jriga:

Ownage confirmed.

@Tommasta: The car analogy is right on. You can't take a BMW or Mercedes anywhere to get it worked on and your local Autozone is not going to carry parts for them. You have to take them to a dealer to get them serviced and usually you have buy dealer parts for them.

apples sells computers? I thought they just sold mp3 playes and phones

F!CK market share...

show the profit numbers. Apple is rolling in the dough while the PC manufactures are slicing and dicing to try to make a decent profit.

show the market share trends.. Apple is going up, HP is going up, Dell is going through the floor.

even among the PC manufactures your childish "analysis" isn't even indicative of what is going on

please get a clue!

I have said it 1000 times and I will say it again... MARKET SHARE MEANS NOTHING.

Market share is NOT a accurate means of measuring installed base of a object. If you have two labs of 10 computers two different types (one mac one PC, one Dell one HP you pick) and lets say one lab needs to be replaced every 2 years for whatever reason, while the other is still perfectly fine, the market share in that quarter would show that (a) manufacturer had a higher market share while their installed base stayed the same.

In perspective we currently run 5-6 year old Macintosh machines, and 2 year old Dells that are replaced every 2-3 years due to wear and tear. One of the know facts about Macintosh machines is they have a much lower upkeep cost, this is a fact that many IT magazines have tested, that it costs more to maintain a PC than a Mac due mostly to the fact that macs can last twice as long as a PC most times. So people are replacing PCs much more often than they are replacing Macs.

Thus the market share per quarter is always going to be higher for a PC though the installer base might much narrower to each other.

It's not about who "pwns" whom. It's about the target demographic. Dell and HP, in addition to the home consumer market, aggressively go after the business market. While Apple's servers might be good, they are not marketed or priced nearly as well as the PC manufacturers.

Watch the Sunday morning news programs sometime. There aren't ads for Apple servers. That's a problem because that's when people who make decisions about what equipment to buy get information.

Apple's switch campaign was a failure. Fanboys, cry all you want, but the truth is that after a year of the Switch TV ad campaign, Apple lost marketshare. This is largely because Apple still cannot get the customer who is looking for a 200 terminal set-up. In those situations, shiny loses to cost every time. Additionally, programs like Citrix just don't play well with OSX, diminishing the benefit.

Business is where the PC market is at.

@WMeredith: And doing so ensures the car's value is retained and that junk parts aren't going on premium cars. I don't want an Autozone battery. Or even wipers for that matter. There is a REASON those parts are dirt cheap and being sold by guys named 'Daryl' who has a brother named, 'Daryl'. LOL - You don't 'get' it either... but you just owned yourself. It was great.

I'm a Dell fanboy and you can all kiss my ass! Woo Hoo!
Dimension 8300
Inspiron B130
Optiplex GX240

All solid runners and I loves 'em, so I do.

Jobs said it best when he returned to Apple: "We don't have to be better than Microsoft. We just have to be the best we can be." And, they are. The industry STILL follows Apple's lead.

PS: Apple computers aren't significantly more expensive than comparable Windows-only PCs. Do a price comparison and see for yourself.