Apple notebook market share falls in fourth quarter

[iSee]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20...ook20070320;_ylt=ArREAwX7x7KririjkS9.Z4sxVrIF

That stinks, although maybe this will encourage Apple to give us more for less in the next revisions...

Update: It turns out that the original report was in error. Apple's market share actually fell 0.7% from the same quarter the previous year, not 7% as originally reported. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/macworld/20...ook20070321;_ylt=Am4VP8DMThhtNGwpQzUhh98xVrIF
(credit: AFAIK, Lancetx was the 1st to post about the correction)

 

[Turkish]

I love it when people/media know Apple's number before they are even officially released for the quarter.

 

[miniConvert]

Vista has just been released. I'm sure Apple's numbers will get a bump after Leopard comes out - there's a lot of folks holding out for the new OS at the moment.

 

[dswoodley]

I love it when people/media know Apple's number before they are even officially released for the quarter.

Yeah, I guarantee you gartner and IDC will all show different numbers. I have no doubt Apple's share did fall, but who can say for sure until all numbers and outlets are in?

 

[Veritas&Equitas]

Oh I have no doubt they dropped, primarily because of Vista, but also a huge contingent of people are holding out until Leopard and the new hardware. I know I am!

 

[BigPrince]

Im a holdout for Santa Rosa and Leopard. I will not cave in. I will not cave in. AERH

 

[snowmoon]

"Market share" is a horrible term since it only counts $'s/sold and does not reflect actual use or profits. All of those companies took it out of their hide to surge in "market share".

Don't forget that Apple already announced that it's Year over January laptop sales more than doubled for this year. This is even with Leopard pending.

For a brief primer on why "Market share" sucks as any kind of indicator..

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/FFE4A8E2-9816-4344-9FB0-61BED246674C.html

 

[dejo]

I love it when people/media know Apple's number before they are even officially released for the quarter.

Apparently, these numbers are for calendar Q4 2006 (Oct - Dec). Hmm, it took almost till the end of Q1 2007 to report these numbers?

 

[iW00t]

Don't forget that Apple already announced that it's Year over January laptop sales more than doubled for this year. This is even with Leopard pending.

For a brief primer on why "Market share" sucks as any kind of indicator..

If the article says the opposite people will be saying differently

Perception of any metric is dependent on how it portrays Apple

Why market share is not relevant? Selling 100% units compared to last year is useless if your competition are selling 1000% more units. Evaluation of improved performance is dependent on trend indicators, if laptop sales are trending up, and HP sold 300% more laptops this year compared to the last, who cares if Apple sold 200% more laptops?

Never studied at any institution that utilised the curve? Just because you got 90% in a subject doesn't mean you are any good. The average may be 97%.

 

[synth3tik]

Considering that during the later part of the 4th quarter the MBs and the MBPs were the only laptops on the amazon top 10. I have a hard time thinking their shares fell, I think it was no a total market that fell and not just Apple.

 

[iW00t]

Considering that during the later part of the 4th quarter the MBs and the MBPs were the only laptops on the amazon top 10. I have a hard time thinking their shares fell, I think it was no a total market that fell and not just Apple.

A better explanation for that is no other manufacturer on this planet only sells 5 models of laptop computers, even if %PeeCee Maker% has the same number of model (numbers) they probably come in configurations ranging from 1.66ghz to some super high performance spec, so obviously no single PeeCee model is in the top 10.

 

[Skrilla™]

maybe this will encourage Apple to give us more for less in the next revisions...

wishful thinking at its finest

 

[princealfie]

Wait a minute I bought my Macbook just 1.5 months ago so did that help Apple in the Q4?

 

[Cooknn]

...there's a lot of folks holding out for the new OS at the moment.

I suspect there's more holding out for a UB version of Adobe Creative Suite (as well as Microsoft Office).

 

[snowmoon]

Why market share is not relevant? Selling 100% units compared to last year is useless if your competition are selling 1000% more units. Evaluation of improved performance is dependent on trend indicators, if laptop sales are trending up, and HP sold 300% more laptops this year compared to the last, who cares if Apple sold 200% more laptops?

Why is this statistic bunk?

1) 4th quarter covers black friday. Dollars during this timeframe almost always chase the cheap cheap laptops sold as door busters. These are replacing "throw away" windows desktops and not hurting sales for Apple.

2) Apple does not discount for the season unlike every other manufacturer... I would expect "market share" to fall every 4th quarter for this exact reason if none other.

3) Laptops sales are booming so for "market share" to drop 7% says nothing about the number of units shipped or the gross margins on those units. Apple could have sold 10x as many units as the year before and still dropped %7 in "market share" if the market for laptops grew far faster.

4) Depending on who is doing the adding, retail sales from Apple retail outlets are not counted in this total.

Why is the January doubling of laptop sales important? Because all those people that wanted Mac's for the holidays and didn't get them went out and got them in January

 

[Lancetx]

I certainly don't much stock in market share numbers either. They are a very poor indicator of how well a company is actually doing. One perfect example is something I read recently comparing Dell and Apple. Last quarter, it took Dell $14.4 Billion in revenue to generate just $673 Million in profit. Meanwhile, Apple generated $1 Billion in profit on revenues of only $7.1 Billion.

This just goes to show that Dell has to sell a ton of their cheap boxes to make any kind of money, and that Apple is the far healthier company of the two, despite the fact that their overall market share is far less than that of Dell.

 

[Lancetx]

As it turns out, the original news story of a 7% drop was inaccurate after all. They've issued a correction saying it was actually only 0.7% instead.

Link

 

[JNB]

Apparently, these numbers are for calendar Q4 2006 (Oct - Dec). Hmm, it took almost till the end of Q1 2007 to report these numbers?

Absolutely. Pretty much any mid-sized to large company requires that much time for prior quarter numbers. Keep in mind, that's one metric of many that they report officially in the 10-Q, and that's not something that can be tossed out in a couple weeks.

Speak only the truth, the SEC is listening, and the market will whip you like a stepchild.

 

[deadpixels]

Last quarter, it took Dell $14.4 Billion in revenue to generate just $673 Million in profit. Meanwhile, Apple generated $1 Billion in profit on revenues of only $7.1 Billion.
and that Apple is the far healthier company of the two.

or far more greedy one can say

 

[Lancetx]

or far more greedy one can say

Well, I certainly wouldn't call Dell generous would you? This shouldn't come as any kind of a shock, but all corporations are in business to make money you know. And that certainly applies to Dell every bit as much as it does to Apple. Apple just seems to be a lot more effective at it than Dell is these days...