Will apple ever have larger market share than microsoft?

[yettimillan]

Hi i know that the amount of people using Mac os X has increase a bit over the last few years.

My question is... will mac os ever surpass the Microsoft os in terms of users. Or even if mac can't do it alone, with the growth in linux, will mac, linux and various other os's surpass the Microsoft os?

Thanks

 

[ss957916]

No - because Apple aren't targeting a mass market.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Nope, not until major organizations adopt different technology ... ie: move away from MS. And fact is, many servers are MS servers and they're very efficient.

 

[stridemat]

Nope as the majority of business users use windows and will stay with them for the foreseeable future.

The only way it would happens is if Microsoft go bankrupt and stop supporting all their software. (not going to happen ever)

 

[thejadedmonkey]

god I hope not, Apple is way too arrogant as is!

 

[gunraidan]

The reason why OS X lags so far from Microsoft is because the only legal and intuitive way to get OS X is to be a Mac which aren't only tied to one brand, but are more expensive than your average computer.

 

[ss957916]

The reason why OS X lags so far from Microsoft is because the only legal and intuitive way to get OS X is to be a Mac which aren't only tied to one brand, but are more expensive than your average computer.

Of course - good point.

Why don't Apple have a PC version of OS X?

Great way to get people to try (and love) the OS and then make the full move over to a Mac.

 

[ravenvii]

Of course - good point.

Why don't Apple have a PC version of OS X?

Great way to get people to try (and love) the OS and then make the full move over to a Mac.

Been discussed a million times. Not gonna happen, makes zero business sense for Apple.

 

[arkitect]

god I hope not, Apple is way too arrogant as is!

Agreed. Imagine Steve Jobs with 95% marketshare?

Why don't Apple have a PC version of OS X?

Great way to get people to try (and love) the OS and then make the full move over to a Mac.

How do you figure that out?

If it was possible to run (easily and legally) Mac OS on a generic PC, believe me I would not be buying Mac hardware. And I suspect I am not alone.

Apple would end up having to compete with Microsoft on software sales alone… goodbye Apple. Or at least, goodbye Mac.

 

[pdjudd]

Great way to get people to try (and love) the OS and then make the full move over to a Mac.

WHo in their right mind would get Mac hardware if they can get the software to work in cheaper hardware? Thats like suggesting that BMW should give its technology to Toyota and expect people to buy BMW's - that just won't happen. Were Apple to take that route, it would introduce people to the Mac software, but it would not do anything to the hardware side of things becasue they are never introduced to it. People would just go "Mac OS - nice, my next computer is going to be the same system - the hardware is way overpriced though - I can get it cheaper from Dell".

Microsoft already dominates the OS market to such a high degree that competing on that level is just impractical - which is why Apple sells hardware - so that they have a distinctive business model that they can comptete with. You drop the hardware business and Microsoft can promptly kill you off because you are more vulnerable to the whims of other companies that MS has better relationships with. It has nothing to do with the qulaity of the software - it has to do with the nature of the market. Microsoft got to where they duid bnecasue of a market fluke - notice that nobody can replicate MS's business model and that MS tends to do poorly in markets where they do not have established control in a related sector.

 

[ChrisA]

Hi i know that the amount of people using Mac os X has increase a bit over the last few years.

My question is... will mac os ever surpass the Microsoft os in terms of users. Or even if mac can't do it alone, with the growth in linux, will mac, linux and various other os's surpass the Microsoft os?

Thanks

No. Apple always targets the upper end of the market and ignores the low end. Apple will adjust what it sells so that they always have the more expensive and more profitable products.

If anyone passes up Microsoft it will because people stop buying the current kind of computer, the big screen with keyboard in front of it. Microsoft does not dominate any market other than the one for conventional computers but that kind of computer may remain the main type for 25 or 30 more years. Microsoft's biggest fear is that "the next big advance" may leave them being irrelevant. They are right to think so.

 

[nick9191]

If Apple release OS X to run on PC's then most likely. Which I suspect will happen at some point.

And I advise everyone to watch this series of videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lrjsG_esX0 (don't forget parts 2, 3 and 4) before anyone claims that it's bad business sense, people wont buy Mac hardware, viruses will come to the Mac etc.

 

[mynewromantica]

Of course - good point.

Why don't Apple have a PC version of OS X?

Great way to get people to try (and love) the OS and then make the full move over to a Mac.

THis defeats part of the purpose of having a Mac. Part of the reason OS X is so reliable and stable is because it is only used on very specific hardware. If it were open to all sort of hardware it would open up a pandora's box of problems with compatibility and stability that Apple has spent years avoiding and they have done it very successfully. If Apple were to open up their OS like that it would be a disaster.

 

[nick9191]

THis defeats part of the purpose of having a Mac. Part of the reason OS X is so reliable and stable is because it is only used on very specific hardware. If it were open to all sort of hardware it would open up a pandora's box of problems with compatibility and stability that Apple has spent years avoiding and they have done it very successfully. If Apple were to open up their OS like that it would be a disaster.

Again you're projecting problems with Windows onto OS X. Many operating systems: BSD, Solaris, 100's of Linux distributions all run on x86 hardware, reliably and stable.

Windows has problems for many reasons. Flaws within the design of Windows that cannot be changed without breaking compatibility, legacy code dragged throughout modern versions of Windows to ensure backwards compatibility. If you start projecting Windows specific problems onto other operating systems then it shows how badly the Windows mentality has affected people, and just proves my point that we badly need competition within the OS retail space. When I say "Windows mentality", I basically mean that people think because Windows suffers from a problem or performs a task in a certain way, then other operating systems will as well.

Not only that, but Apple has many issues with compatibility and stability in regards to drivers as it is. Graphics drivers from both ATI and Nvidia suck ass compared to their Windows counterparts. If you release OS X then you pick up a larger user base and companies will flock to your platform to develop their software and write drivers for their hardware. So if you release OS X the variety and quality of drivers available will dramatically improve. It's OS X that is having a real problem with drivers right now, not Windows.

To summarise the above in a statement: OS X can handle it.

 

[Winni]

Hi i know that the amount of people using Mac os X has increase a bit over the last few years.

My question is... will mac os ever surpass the Microsoft os in terms of users. Or even if mac can't do it alone, with the growth in linux, will mac, linux and various other os's surpass the Microsoft os?

No. Microsoft provides a versatile platform on which almost all industries have standardized, and what's even more important, there's a huge third party ecosystem around the Microsoft platform. Microsoft owns the corporate desktop and the lion share of the corporate server room.

Apple only targets the home users and doesn't even have products for the corporate market. Apple does not have a corporate-ready office platform, they don't have any backoffice software at all and their choice of server hardware is a joke when you compare it to what Dell and HP and IBM offer.

Linux is a server and maybe also a gadget/appliance platform, but it totally fails on the desktop. Heck, even in the server room, it is mostly limited to being the L in the LAMP stack.

There are many good reasons why Apple is betting its survival as a corporation on consumer gadgets...

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I hope not, and doubt it. I want Apple to grow more, but never to oust MS as the big faceless overdog of the computer world.

 

[nick9191]

WHo in their right mind would get Mac hardware if they can get the software to work in cheaper hardware? Thats like suggesting that BMW should give its technology to Toyota and expect people to buy BMW's - that just won't happen. Were Apple to take that route, it would introduce people to the Mac software, but it would not do anything to the hardware side of things becasue they are never introduced to it. People would just go "Mac OS - nice, my next computer is going to be the same system - the hardware is way overpriced though - I can get it cheaper from Dell".

The car analogy doesn't really work since Apple switched to Intel. The hardware is the same. If you say that Apple can't sell a Mac because PC's are running OS X as well, then you need to explain why many OEM's can compete successfully over one OS (Windows). If people only bought cheap hardware then premium lines would not exist. Dell XPS, Alienware , Falcon Northwest, Voodoo, are all premium brands of hardware and all sell well, whilst charging the same markup as Apple and running the same OS as a $399 PC.

Not only that but Apple's OS X user base does not match Apple's hardware sales. Apple's hardware sales do outweigh OS X users, showing that people are buying Mac's to run Windows, Linux etc. Granted the difference is not much simply because Apple (thankfully) do not offer Macs with Windows installed, and many users do not know how or do not want to buy and install Windows themselves. But if Apple did offer Macs with Windows alongside Macs with OS X, I can guarantee you that Apple's hardware sales would far outweigh OS X users.

There are many advantages of buying a Mac even if you do not intend to use OS X. Excellent build quality, excellent customer support, excellent design. Certainly some Mac users would go out and buy a PC with OS X instead of buying a Mac, but this loss would easily be offset by software sales. Not only that but in many countries outside of the US, the Mac is a relatively alien platform. By licensing out OS X you would increase awareness of OS X 10x fold around the world, and I'm willing to bet that because of this, Apple's hardware sales would increase, not decrease if OS X was set free.

If you say that Apple can't sell a Mac because PC's are running OS X as well, then you have a poor opinion of Apple hardware (which fair enough, some people do).

 

[yettimillan]

The reason I say this is because i have had a few compatibility issues.

Firstly i re formatted my usb data traveller and it now only shows up on mac. Also when i saved my pages document as a .doc it re formatted it so some of the things didn't come up.
I do have bootcamp so i could use ms word but i think pages is far better with designing so i want to use it still.

What i really want is for colleges and schools to have a mix of macs and windows so we can choose which os to use.

 

[LethalWolfe]

By licensing out OS X you would increase awareness of OS X 10x fold around the world, and I'm willing to bet that because of this, Apple's hardware sales would increase, not decrease if OS X was set free.

Already tried that and it nearly killed Apple in the 90's. Apple is a *hardware* company that makes some topnotch first party software. Software is basically a loss leader for Apple.

If you say that Apple can't sell a Mac because PC's are running OS X as well, then you have a poor opinion of Apple hardware (which fair enough, some people do).

I guess Apple has a low opinion of their own hardware then...


Lethal

 

[chstr]

lets hope not eh?

 

[dmmcintyre3]

THis defeats part of the purpose of having a Mac. Part of the reason OS X is so reliable and stable is because it is only used on very specific hardware. If it were open to all sort of hardware it would open up a pandora's box of problems with compatibility and stability that Apple has spent years avoiding and they have done it very successfully. If Apple were to open up their OS like that it would be a disaster.

Accually Mac OS X is very stable once booted using hacked kexts (My video driver is a modified gma x3100 kext running the 4500 and my wifi is the same way).

 

[Consultant]

When computer prices come down to the level of iPod, iPhones, people will pay a little bit more for a better product.

 

[nick9191]

Already tried that and it nearly killed Apple in the 90's. Apple is a *hardware* company that makes some topnotch first party software. Software is basically a loss leader for Apple.

The clones did no such thing. Apple was already crashing, the clones were a last minute attempt to rescue Apple. The clones also equated to a very low percentage of computers sold running the Mac OS. In 1995, the clone makers combined, sold 200,000 units vs. Apple's 4.5 million (source)

Apple failed because their management system was a joke, they could not fulfil orders, and they lost their technological advantage to Windows by being so protective of their software (note: the last point is repeating itself again today).

 

[xIGmanIx]

no, never will. Both OS's are already entrenched in their respective niche's

 

[hss1]

Market share

Dont think Apple will ever have such a large market share, but with on 10% it turns over $34 Billion a year as of 2009 with Nearly $6 billion profit.

Apples profit margin is up to 30% per machine the highest out of any computer company!!!! and rumoured 60% on the Iphone

Microsoft makes $50 per $1000 machine and apple makes $300 on a $1000 unit which is nearly 6 times what Microsoft makes!!!!! Why would Apple ever licence mac OSX to other Manufacturers and get Microsoft's returns

Microsoft's turnover with 80% market share is $60 Billion with about $10 billion profit

So Apple is actually doing very well!!!! i do think apple will overtake Microsoft in the next 5 years to become worth more than it.

About market share look what happened to GM!!! Apple is a niche like Gucci, BMW, Audi etc and wants to retain its brand image as a Quality premium Bran