Apple Mac owns 90% market share for ‘premium’ PCs costing over $1,000 with $499 iPad coming soon

"Windows 7 did little to slow the Mac's sales trajectory during fourth quarter, according to NPD. Year over year, Apple doubled US retail unit share -- from 5 percent to 10 percent -- for PCsselling between $500 and $1,000. More startling, Apple increased its unit share from 79 percent to 90 percent in the market for 'premium' PCs, meaning those selling for more than $1,000," Joe Wilcox reports for Betanews. "In July, I reported that Apple's revenue share for PCs selling for more than $1,000 was 91 percent, because of higher average selling prices; nearly all Macs sold for more than $1,000. Now Apple benefits from 90-percent unit share, too."

"Stated differently: Nine out of 10 premium PCs purchased from US retail brick-and-mortar stores or online sites (including major chains and Apple Store) during fourth quarter was a Mac," Wilcox reports. "The data isn't good for Microsoft's Windows PC partners. Microsoft and OEMs touted more feature-rich Windows 7 PCs for the holidays. Additionally, ahead of Windows 7's launch, Microsoft spent six months marketing premium Windows PCs during its 'Laptop Hunters' campaign. These marketing efforts apparently failed. Apple doesn't just own the premium market, its sales are increasing there."

WIlcox continues, "For now, as I explained in Friday post, "'Apple iPad was my idea'," there are no price cuts but an opening of price bands. I wrote: "iPad fills a gaping hole in the [portable] Mac product line between the aforementioned $399 and $999. Suddenly, the cheapest, functional Mac portable is $499, or half what it was on Monday. Consumers who wanted a Mac but couldn't afford one can get one for under 500 bucks." The day after, I posted about Apple covering all mobile computing price points from $99 to $2,499, Boy Genius Report put together a visual representation."

Flappo The Grate:

"Windows 7 did little to slow the Mac's sales trajectory during fourth quarter, according to NPD. Year over year, Apple doubled US retail unit share -- from 5 percent to 10 percent -- for PCsselling between $500 and $1,000. More startling, Apple increased its unit share from 79 percent to 90 percent in the market for 'premium' PCs, meaning those selling for more than $1,000," Joe Wilcox reports for Betanews. "In July, I reported that Apple's revenue share for PCs selling for more than $1,000 was 91 percent, because of higher average selling prices; nearly all Macs sold for more than $1,000. Now Apple benefits from 90-percent unit share, too."

That's a nice way of saying that Macs are horribly more expensive than PCs

Relative to performance and productivity, Mac's are not expensive, tournedos. 

B&O takes a premium within A/V; Apple does so within personal computing. Critics who don't know the Apple experience consider them overpriced.

Two takes on that. When a large German publishing company considers buying new computers for its 10.000 employees, it decides to conduct a parallel study between workers using PCs and workers using Mac's. The results are so conclusive that they fast-track the transition to Mac's, and cite the change as a parameter in their study of competitive strength.

But here's another view. Josh Marshall is the founder of Talkingpointsmemo - a political news site on the web, with an enormous number of page hits per day.
He made the transition to Mac's not that long ago, and has some musings on the topic, relative to the number of visitors to his site who are using Mac's, and the growth in their numbers.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/09/how_many_of_you_use_macs.php

This article suggests, as I suspected, that TPM's audience has a much higher percentage of Mac usage than the population at large. According to a study by Net Applications from just under a year ago, about 10% of people used Macs. But the rate of growth of Mac to Windows usage seems about on par with ours, just starting from a much lower point. The pick up appears to have started in 2006 (which happens to be when I bought my first Mac) and accelerated in the last year.

Does this dovetail with your experience? Are you one of the converts? As I explained in this post from about three years ago, I bought my first Mac because I was finally at a point in my life where I had enough money and computers were central enough to what I do, that I could afford to buy a really good personal computer. I'd been using PCs for about twenty years. But try as I might, I realized that I simply could not find a computer in the PC world that was well manufactured or worked very well. So out of pure desperation I bought a Mac to see if they were any better and I never looked back.

Recently, he posted stat's on the growth in Mac users, and the increase in use of the iPhone as a browsing device. While IE and Windows are falling in popularity.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/02/browser_stats_tech-nerds_only.php#more?ref=fpblg

I've given up on B&O seeing the light in this respect, and have resigned myself to developing my own Mac-compatible solution with B&O peripherals.

they're not actually

a top end alienware or dell workstation is more expensive than a mac pro , while the mac actually has a second hand value

mid range it's similar , the imac has just about everything built in while with a pc it's a plethora of  'hiidden extras'

anyway , bno should hire a linux / os-x  programmer  and ensure all their gear seamlessly integrates with things like the ipad rather than using winblows which is going nowhere fast

that's my point

Spot on Flappo. I recall these very conversations early on when the BeoSound 2 was first introduced. The iPod was brand new and Apple was not nearly the juggernaut they are today. It was stupid 10 years ago and it's stupid today. I can honestly say that BeoPlayer is the biggest joke left. 

(Wrote a post that went to moderation. While waiting for that to appear):

Sometimes, one is cursed by circumstances. Previous B&O mgt had very strong contacts to Microsoft, due to the LEGO&PC-control product line. In fact, one of the factors cited when TBS got hired was his strong contacts at Microsoft.

So B&O picked Microsoft and Windows Media Center just as Apple launched iTunes/iPod.

The fates are wily creatures.

I use PC and i use Mac - every single day. So, please - i'm not going to be a Mac Evangelist here, i just want to state something.

I go to a LOT of homes, all over the UK - and i see a disproportionate number of Mac owners if we look at the traditional Mac/PC split.

I would guess well over half the customers i visit own Macs, and almost all of these people wish B&O would integrate better with them.  Like B&O ownership, Mac ownership is infectious and you end up with multiple items in multiple rooms. You even look for excuses to buy Apple products like as do B&O.  You get excited about new products, and you want them because they just work.. well.

What i'm trying to say is that B&O should indeed hire a Mac/Linux specialist and wake up to the fact a huge number of their customers love their Apple products as much as they do their B&O and get incredibly frustrated when they don't work together.

My message to B&O - Ignore the traditional split that the industry publishes - wake up and look at what your customers are using.  Do everything you can to involve them with other products they are loyal to, which can't be bad for business, surely?

Lee

9 LEE:

I go to a LOT of homes, all over the UK - and i see a disproportionate number of Mac owners if we look at the traditional Mac/PC split.

Well, I'm sure you also see a lot more M-B's sitting on the yard than you would if you delivered LG or Philips kit...

The average PC user doesn't see much point in paying $1000+ for a PC when half that will usually do the job. I'm not questioning the value for money the Macs give or the market shares that were given or that B&O probably should put more interest in supporting the Apple crowd - I just think that this "premium PC" is a silly statistic.

tournedos:

Well, I'm sure you also see a lot more M-B's sitting on the yard than you would if you delivered LG or Philips kit...

Spot on.  It's mainly German Cars (MB/BMW/Audi)

Lee

BMW .. check

B&O .. check

Apple ...check

Have them all so, nothing else to add.... 

cooldude:

BMW .. check

B&O .. check

Apple ...check

Have them all so, nothing else to add....

Audi .. check

B&O .. check

Apple ...check

Have them all so, nothing else to add....

cooldude:

BMW .. check

B&O .. check

Apple ...check

Same here!

B&O...check

Apple...check

Mercedes...check

Sorry couldn't resist

B&O...check

Apple...check

Porsche...check

Y'all eat my dust

i thought B&O knows about the higher then average of Mac users in their customer base. We had that in one of the UK CEO interviews I believe.

They have Itunes integration so what is missing? For Beosound the only thing I am frustrated about is the non gapless playing for live recordings and classic when it comes to Mac supported formats.

Don't give me the 1.99$ Iphone Application. They also have the remote in their STB ....

I've said this before on the these threads and I'll say it again...  show me one company that Apple plays nice with other than Apple.  iPod docks do not count since I think we're all wanting superior integration with Mac computers vs. iPods.  Are there any known products that contain embedded Macs (like BM5's embedded PC)?  Apple "owns" their user experience (hardware and software), and this has everything to do with how easy they are to use.  I don't see them opening this up, even to a user experience pioneer like B&O.

I certainly wish my BS5 could play Apple lossless (I still haven't figured out how to convert Apple lossless to lossless WMA - and I don't feeling like re-recording these LPs, so I live with some lossy mp3 until I find a solution), but I think the realities of the world point to Apple having better things to do with their time and money than helping out a few 10,000 (to be generous) B&O owners.

Stan

Me -

Mercedes + BMW - Check

B&O - Check

Apple - Check

Wife

Audi - Check

B&O - Check

Apple - Check

Matt @ LifeStyle AV

BMW - Check

B&O - Check

Apple - Check

So predictable aren't we!

9 LEE:

Me -

Mercedes - Check

B&O - Check

Apple - Check

Wife

Audi - Check

B&O - Check

Apple - Check

 

Matt @ LifeStyle AV

BMW - Check

B&O - Check

Apple - Check

 

So predictable aren't we!

It's actually quite sad!

Anyways, looking at B&O stockprice, it wouldn't hurt the company to jump on the Mac hype and come up with a product which, obviously, is worthy of carrying the name/price B&O. If I recall, the new CEO mentioned once in investors meeting speech, that as a company B&O will react faster to trends than previous.

Just a suggestion; considdering the world is divided in PC and Mac, why not grab the whole market and come up with products focused on both market groups, seems to me a win - win situation.

Saab: just rescued from oblivion (models owned for 37 years)

Apple: once thought to be heading for oblivion (due to Microsoft) (models owned for 20 years+)

B&O: once thought to be heading for oblivion (due to Japanese Hi Fi) (models owned for 40 years)

Good taste or a case of living on the edge?????

Graham

err , cos their os's are ever so slightly different..

ps , your av rocks - bruce lee !!!

on a different note ; merc , bmw , bno , apple

all quality and in the real world too - unlike some really daft esoteric rubbish

don't be ashamed of having excellent taste my fwendz !

Wonderful Microsoft. Greater Manchester Police have a computer virus and have had to disconnect from the national police network. Just another case of this inferior but near universal Operating System being simply not up to the job and having massive hidden back-up costs (from the back-up office in your company, to the need to buy/ subscribe to  Norton etc every year for your PC.)

These hidden costs actually make the premium Apple Mac a cheaper option every time!

Graham

no doubt they'll use the 'no viruses by obscurity' one on that

hmmm

30+ million macs and NO viruses ??

not even one ??

30 million ! that's a lot of computers , baby

Mac vs PC usage is skewed by the vast proportion used in business where the user has no choice. It is different when people spend their own money - true some will go for the cheapest, others go for ease of use and reliability i.e. Mac. I am heartily sick of windows/viruses/slow startups because of virus scans etc..  B&O should get with the program as they are alienating the very category who may buy their products.

Puncher:

It's actually quite sad!

Although i laughed at that (i'm not that sensitive.. i AM Northern after all) i must protest!! 

In this world, there are few brands to choose from if you want high end, high quality 'everyday' products that aren't so obscure nobody knows anything about them or can talk to people about.

Apple, B&O and German car manufacturers are widely recognised as quality and style - and that's why most of us gravitate towards them.

Lee

9 LEE:

Puncher:

It's actually quite sad!

Although i laughed at that (i'm not that sensitive.. i AM Northern after all) i must protest!! 

In this world, there are few brands to choose from if you want high end, high quality 'everyday' products that aren't so obscure nobody knows anything about them or can talk to people about.

Apple, B&O and German car manufacturers are widely recognised as quality and style - and that's why most of us gravitate towards them.

Lee

Maybe they should sell them all in the same store - sort of like a one stop life-in-a-box shop!