everyone seems to be buying Mac, iPhones & iPods... is Microsoft in trouble?

[xxxoom]

all i hear at work is iphone this and iphone that... or i'm buying a new Mac... and blah blah blah. it just seems that apple is really surging lately. it's unprecedented how much positive buzz they get.

i mean, i know that microsoft isn't going to collapse or anything, but... i gotta be honest, Macs seem to be gaining on PCs by leaps and bounds. and those Mac commercials keep eroding Microsoft's good name.

why doesn't Microsoft fight back? why are they letting apple humiliate them like this?

IT'S REALLY T*CKING ME OFF!!! 

[Kaiser]

What is the point of this? And what exactly would Microsoft do to "fight back"? Shoot Jobs?

[korneel]

What is the point of this? And what exactly would Microsoft do to "fight back"? Shoot Jobs?

I think he means a comercial

But your idea wasn't that bad 

[Kaiser]

[Zaff Sans]

They get lots of buzz because they  receive a free ride in much of the press.

But here is the thing, for every Apple machine that is sold, the non-Apple companies still sell 5,000 of theirs, this is why even after a whole year of fawning by the press, Apple still makes up only at most 7% of the PC market while 91%+ are not. Worldwide Apple is barely at 3%.

Remember that is with all of the free publicity, helpful messageboard trolls, and constant bashing of Microsoft an PC makers.

The non-Apple PC makes have started become smarter and have started to do something that Apple did the whole of 2007, they are running more visible advertising. Microsoft is set to do the same this year too. Advertising is the best counter to the pro-Apple bias in the press that gives the impression that "everyone" is buying Apple stuff. That and the quarterly statements from the non-Apple companies that show how out of whack internet reality is from real reality.
And besides, Apple has gotten away with running some pretty dishonest ads, even by Apple fanatic standards. I think it is way past time many of these companies targeted by their ads step up and counter them.

A lot of these companies were too lazy when it came to Apple last year, and just let them roll over them. I think 2008 will be somewhat different.

[WillysJeepMan]

all i hear at work is iphone this and iphone that... or i'm buying a new Mac... and blah blah blah. it just seems that apple is really surging lately. it's unprecedented how much positive buzz they get.

i mean, i know that microsoft isn't going to collapse or anything, but... i gotta be honest, Macs seem to be gaining on PCs by leaps and bounds. and those Mac commercials keep eroding Microsoft's good name.

why doesn't Microsoft fight back? why are they letting apple humiliate them like this?

IT'S REALLY T*CKING ME OFF!!! 

Could it be that Apple produces products that resonate with many customers?  (Not saying that they don't have their share of lemmings)

If Microsoft ever had a good name, it is being tarnished by their own missteps.  Things like 3+ weeks of XBox Live outages (and still going on for many) aren't caused by anything Apple is doing.

Microsoft needs to do things to reach out beyond their fans.  That's it in a nutshell.

[Zaff Sans]

Microsoft has tons of products that are really good.

The problem is that they only advertise on TV (outside of Xbox and maybe Zune) when they have a new OS, and that is only for a few weeks  before and after launch.

After that they leave a vacuum where people that really want to see them gone are all to happy to fill.

[JustTheFacts]

Actually, Apple's marketshare has increased from 3% worldwide to about 7.5% worldwide. Research it. Last quarter Apple shipped 2.2 million computers comapared to about 5 million each from Dell and HP (look at all latest quarterly statements).

Furthermore, separate sells to corporations from the consumers and small business users that buy Macs versus PCs and you will see that Apple has a healthy market share selling to consumers and small business users.

I work for a large corporation and they make so many not bright purchasing decisions that we actually have a wall of 200 HP xw8600 workstations setting along a wall collecting dust because they are not needed. They will probably be scrapped in a few years after they are too old and never being used. When I was in the Air Force the same thing happen. So, multiply that by all the large corporations and government agencies that buy more than they need and the PC marketshare of equipment that is actually being used is not that big. No corportaion buys more expensive Macs and let them set around collecting dust. If they are bought, it's because users are asking for them.

Also, Apple has said they don't cater to the enterprise market. So, ignore the huge enterprise market and Apple has respectable marketshare compared to the PC. It's a lot larger than 7% outside of the enterprise market.

[Zaff Sans]

Actually, Apple's marketshare has increased from 3% worldwide to about 7.5% worldwide.

7% US, less worldwide.


"Research it. Last quarter Apple shipped 2.2 million computers comapared to about 5 million each from Dell and HP (look at all latest quarterly statements)."

Um, 2.2 compared to 10 million from these two + all the other PC makers.


"Furthermore, separate sells to corporations from the consumers and small business users that buy Macs versus PCs and you will see that Apple has a healthy market share selling to consumers and small business users."

Still 7% compared to 90%+.

A PC sold is still a PC sold. Let's separate the Macs sold to designers and students and PCs  have a healthy market share selling to photographers and video producers. That also makes about as much sense.

"I work for a large corporation and they make so many not bright purchasing decisions that we actually have a wall of 200 HP xw8600 workstations setting along a wall collecting dust because they are not needed. They will probably be scrapped in a few years after they are too old and never being used. When I was in the Air Force the same thing happen. So, multiply that by all the large corporations and government agencies that buy more than they need and the PC marketshare of equipment that is actually being used is not that big. No corportaion buys more expensive Macs and let them set around collecting dust. If they are bought, it's because users are asking for them."

I love anecdotal evidence! You can make a whole fun world of anything you want.
It's a great trick, but it's not "facts". Let me try:

I saw 17 people with Zunes today. I also saw an iPod in the trash, that means the iPods marketshare is way less than what is reported. I'm saying 55% Zune, 12% iPod.

"Also, Apple has said they don't cater to the enterprise market. So, ignore the huge enterprise market and Apple has respectable marketshare compared to the PC. It's a lot larger than 7% outside of the enterprise market."


Anecdotes and "let's ignore". I guess whatever gets you there.

[datumpirate]

Don't know if it's been said, but even if Macs are gaining popularity, a fraction of Mac users will install Windows on the machine.  Microsoft has nothing to worry about in the PC world.  They only make software, not the computer itself, so they have no serious threat from Macs. 

[Apallohadas]

So, ignore the huge enterprise market and Apple has respectable marketshare compared to the PC. It's a lot larger than 7% outside of the enterprise market.

You're an idiot.

You're not even taking into account the OEM builders that are completely uncharted in the PC realm.

Have you built your own apple? No.

Kthxbyebye.

[JustTheFacts]

What it boils down to is that Apple's marketshare has been increasing for the last two years. Their marketshare is also growing faster than the overall market. When I see data that says the opposite then I will say that people are fed up with Apple and going to Windows.

Also, in the future (now) computers will not be what we traditionally think they will be. What company is in the better position to exploit that? I'll let you figure it out, but it's the company that makes the iPhone and iPod Touch. Those devices do about 60% of what the typical user uses a computer for. How long before the line starts to become blurred between those devices and the traditional computer.

Apple is laying the groundwork to take advantage of that when it happens. They have an operating system that can be stripped down to work on smaller devices, etc. Smaller devices are where it's at, not PCs and laptops. What has Microsoft done? All those WinCE devices that no one really uses to surf the web because the interface is horrible.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/iphone_browsing_marketshare_closes_in_on_1

The iPhone and iPod Touch is already the most popular small device to surf the internet with. Eclipsing all the Win mobile and WinCE devices It started with the iPod and continued on. That's why Apple's stock has been the 2nd best performing over the last 10 yrs.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/winningest-stocks-past-10-years/story.aspx?guid=%7BE91B59DE%2D6ED7%2D464A%2D880C%2DB59E1813ED6C%7D

Microsoft's stock has went nowhere over the last 5 years. The people with money see Apple has nowhere to go but up and Microsoft is on it's way down. I think Apple is happy with the way things are going for them. They are looking forward to increasing marketshare, etc. Microsoft is scrambling to find the next best thing to replace Windows and Office as their long-term cash cow. We already know that xBox is losing billions for them and they can't get any traction with the Zune.

[JustTheFacts]

Who builds computers besides geeks? That is a very small part of the market. I have a PC and I didn't build it. If you have that much free time to build a computer, you need to get a life or make more money and buy a gaming PC from one of the gaming PC manufacturers.

[Zuneblack]

haha exactly

[D4V3]

Who builds computers besides geeks? That is a very small part of the market. I have a PC and I didn't build it. If you have that much free time to build a computer, you need to get a life or make more money and buy a gaming PC from one of the gaming PC manufacturers.

ROFL are you dead serious right now? i wouldnt at all call it a "small" part of the market, it all depends on your perspective. just as zaff sans mentioned earlier- you using first hand experience as evidence isnt necessarily valid. technically i never built an entire computer myself either, but that doesnt at all mean that it's a small market. if you hear a kid talking about building a computer, he typically is in the process of saving up the money to buy all of the parts, and THAT is what takes the most time.  if you have all of the parts and the appropriate tools, building a computer should take no longer than a night, and that's including setup/install of an operating system. [assuming you dont run into any major problems along the road] building your own pc lets the user know that they got the best possible quality that was available to them, and they know exactly what they got- buying a computer from a manufacturer can be tough if you plan on upgrading it down the road. for example, we had a customer in the store the other day- he wanted to get an upgraded video card- no problem, right? the main issue with this was that dell gave him a low end motherboard, and it had no agp or pci-e slots, only the 3 standard pci slots [i guess i shouldnt say "standard"- i'll say "common"]. as i'm sure most of you know, if you only have pci, you're almost better off not even bothering with a video card, as you're not going to have nearly as much video/graphic enhancement as you would with an agp or pci express card. long story short- this was one customer who was not aware that the future upgradeability of his computer was very limited, and hence, if you build your own computer, you know right from the start what it's limitations are and what you can expect from it. that, and building a gaming computer is WAY cheaper than buying one from a gaming pc manufacturer.