Show me the money

Jim Spike, commenting from Malaysia, challenged me to produce "the exact figures on that market share" of Apple compared to other platforms. It's always been hard to pin down exactly, as it varies from region to region.

In about 1990, I heard (and I can't prove this) that Apple held about 12 per cent of the world market, and of course this was 12 per cent of a much smaller installed base of computers, as the personal computer phenomenon was just beginning to become established.

In the mid 1990s, when Apple was in the doldrums, that had slipped to about 2 or 3 per cent in the US and it was probably a similar percentage here - although, anecdotally, Apple's profile in Japan and Germany was higher.

Now, 2 to 3 per cent was not a very significant as part of worldwide computer sales, and Apple was relegated into a slot overlooked by many.

Tech analysts and discussion boards alike, and indeed mainstream computer magazines, seemed to regard Mac users as the last fanatical holdouts before the inevitable tidal wave of Windows- based PCs washed over them.

Then Steve Jobs came back.

A decade on, due to strong growth, Apple is considered a real contender and has billions in the bank. Of course, the ability of Intel-based Macs to host and run Windows software is a big factor in all this, but Apple expects the lure of Mac OS X to work its insidious magic on users who primarily intend to run Windows on their Macs.

In April this year, Apple Inc released figures showing 43 per cent growth on the year before. That represented the shipping of 2,289,000 Macintosh computers during that reported quarter, representing 51 per cent unit growth on the year-before same quarter, worldwide.

Apple's retail stores held a 66 per cent market share for computers purchased in US stores and priced over US$1000 (NZ $1861, UK 670 pounds). According to the NPD Group Inc, during the first quarter of 2008 Apple held a 13.8 per cent share of computers purchased at brick-and-mortar stores in the United States (there were 181 Apple Stores in the US as of May this year). The sales figures for Macs bought from Apple Stores represented an increase from 9.5 per cent over the same quarter in 2007.

This just goes to show how powerful a presence the Apple Stores have become, and also helps to explain the establishing of Apple Stores (actual Apple-owned stores) in Australia in the last few months. Apple Stores clearly increase sales of Macs.

So what is the current worldwide percentage for the Apple Macintosh platform? According to analysts Gartner Inc., Apple has a 6.6 per cent market share. That's behind computer makers Dell, HP and Acer.

International Data Corporation's survey in April this year showed Apple had a 6 per cent share of the American market in the first quarter. It was 4.9 per cent a year before, reported the New York Times newspaper.

I don't ever seem to be able to find exact figures for New Zealand. I suspect this is because the NZ allocation is a subset of Australia's. Anyway, NZ figures are not divulged.

To my knowledge, anyway - if you know, please comment! But the Asia-Pacific region has been strongly represented in Apple's recent growth figures.

According to ZDNet Australia, the analyst firms Gartner and IDC came up with different figures for Down Under, but both showed a strong increase in Mac Sales. Gartner says Apple's market share in the second quarter of 2008 was 5.3 per cent (up from 3.8 per cent) in the same period of 2007. IDC reported Apple's Market share at 6.2 per cent during the first quarter.

For the record, Gartner recorded Hewlett Packard at number one with 21 per cent of the Australian market, followed by Dell at 15 per cent and Acer at 13 per cent. Toshiba and Lenovo each held 8 per cent, all higher than Apple.

But Apple is growing at a much faster rate than those other suppliers. Gartner put Apple's year-over-year growth at 52 per cent, while the overall PC market in Australia grew at just 9. Gartner calculates that Apple sold roughly 20,000 more machines in the second quarter than it had in 2007.

This September, Apple's figures have been reported as representing a one-year growth of 35.3 per cent, resulting in an income growth of 38.3 per cent.

Of course, the recession may change everything. Some big computer firms may flounder, some won't. We'll see.

- Mark Webster mac.nz