KEY POINTS:
A Gartner analyst has warned that the weakening global economy will cause consumers worldwide to slow spending on electronics products. That's hardly a surprise, although sales of personal computers and mobile phones have held up well so far to this year due largely to demand in emerging markets like China, India, Russia and South America. The Gartner analyst reckons emerging market nations will eventually feel the impact of the worsening global economy too.
However, Apple seems set to continue to outgrow competitors in the PC industry, kicking against prevailing market conditions, a Credit Suisse analyst explained to Macworld UK.
"We believe Mac performance is due to several unique drivers that were not present in prior downturns. We anticipate that Apple will continue to grow at a multiple of the overall market for many years to come," Credit Suisse explained.
More quotes are worthwhile noting. "First, Apple has successfully reduced the perceived and actual switching costs for Windows users looking to adopt the Mac platform. Second, Apple's support of the Intel architecture has levelled the playing field in terms of speeds and feeds comparisons between Macs and PCs.
Finally, Apple's successful retail strategy has broadened the availability of Mac products and given Apple more control over the critical computer-selling process. Users can now explore the advantages of the Mac platform with highly trained Apple sales reps."
Well, this last applies overseas in the Apple's own stores, anyway.
Why is Apple still looking so strong? Diversification is a factor, with a revenue stream not just from iPods and not just from Macs; also through phone contracts and constant online sales through iTunes, including songs, apps (users have already downloaded more than 60 million programs for the iPhone), videos and movies.
From the online software sales, Apple keeps only 30 per cent of the proceeds from iPhone/iPod touch application sales. The program creators keep 70 per cent.
Apple is counting on applications to sell more iPhones and wireless-enabled iPod touch players, enhancing the appeal of the products in the same way music sold through Apple's iTunes has kept iPods so desirable.
This means developers have earned about $21 million in the first month of the App Store.
Microsoft Corp and Google Inc, working to popularise their own software platforms for cellphones, appear to have been caught off guard by Apple's rapid expansion in app sales. Even software developers seem surprised by the popularity of their iPhone applications.
But Apple's core Macintosh computer business looks like it's still growing too - many US students arriving for the start of the new year, for instance, plan on toting new Mac laptops, according to a survey conducted by Student Monitor, a US research firm focussed on higher education.
The study polled 1200 full-time four-year undergraduates in the US. Eighty-four per cent who plan to purchase a computer in the next 12 months will buy a notebook, and of those 43 per cent plan on buying Macs.
That figure is nearly double Apple's closet competition, according to the Student Monitor survey. Among students planning to buy a notebook in the next 12 months, 22 per cent said they would buy from Dell, followed by Sony (8 per cent), HP (6 per cent), and Gateway (3 per cent).
The numbers mark another turnaround for Apple from recent trends noted by the research firm. Three years ago, it was Dell that was the preferred laptop maker among college students, with 46 per cent of those surveyed planning to buy a Dell. Then, just 17 per cent were planning on Mac purchases.
But it's not just Apple laptops US students are considering. "Apple computers seem to have a cachet with college students that other brands of computer don't have and this cachet has been re-enforced by students' adoption of iTunes, iPhone, and iPod," said Eric Weil, managing partner at Student Monitor, to Macworld magazine.
All this doesn't just mean Apple will become a bigger part of modern tech life. It also means there will be a lot more interaction between Apple devices and other platforms. You're going to have to learn to live with Apple even if you don't own anything with that distinctive logo.
- Mark Webster mac.nz
