Mac History

[hysteria]

I am writing a paper on Mac computer and was told I should put in the history of Macs. I am told they use to be at the top of the "food chain" in the computer market. Is this true? If so how did they lose all of the people who use to use them? How come they only occupy 10ish% of the computer market?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[WildCowboy]

Start here for an overview, but follow up with more reliable sources for your paper.

 

[mduser63]

I am told they use to be at the top of the "food chain" in the computer market. Is this true?

It depends on what you mean. They certainly were more advanced than competitor's offerings when originally released (and IMO still are today). That said, Macs have never had particularly high marketshare. IIRC, the high was somewhere around 15% in the late 80s/early 90s. All of this is just from my head, so don't take it as fact and surely don't put it in your paper without good research, but hopefully it's helpful in some way.

(You may want to mention that the Apple II was the most popular personal computer for a while. Of course an Apple II is not a Mac, but it was vitally important to Apple's early success.

 

[WildCowboy]

According to this article (with a nice graph!), Apple's market share peaked at 12% around 1993.

Here is another nice table showing Mac + Apple II share of about 22% in 1984.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Also, you should look into the cloning experiment. The Mac's market share took a major hit during this time period.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Just look up Apple in the mid-90's and you could probably write your MBA thesis. Oh, the name Gil Amelio might also provide you with how they dropped so fast.