Mactini
From: Mactini -The Peter Serafinowicz Show Christmas Special – BBC Two
Posts tagged ‘mac’
Dec 21
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Computerworld explains why Apple’s ‘consumer’ Macs are enterprise worthy
Not too long ago, ad agencies, design firms and other creative companies were about the only businesses that widely deployed Macintosh computers to their employees. But for a number of reasons, word of the benefits of Apple Inc. hardware — and software — on enterprise desktops is now spreading….
That list of reasons includes:
- Years of spyware, malware and virus headaches that affect Windows XP have pushed IT managers to scramble for new options they might not have considered in the past.
- The learning curve and disparity of Linux distributions is too high for easy general office use.
- Many corporate applications have been ported to W3-compliant Web services that are OS-agnostic.
- The Mac platform has moved to Windows-compatible Intel chips, which are less expensive and more powerful than older PowerPC processors and make virtualization a viable alternative.
- Mac enterprise administration has become more mainstream and interoperable with Active Directory, Microsoft’s user and inventory LDAP database. Active Directory is the backbone of most corporate environments and can be tied to everything IT-related, including IP phones, facilities access and, of course, computer security. Because Macs work with Microsoft’s directory, enterprise administrators can now more easily manage Macs alongside Windows machines.
- Apple’s consumer lineup is falling into the hands of business decision-makers and their families, and scoring well. What works well at home could do well at work.
Apple’s Mac sales surge over 100 percent in January!
Sales of Apple Inc.’s Mac line of personal computers saw year-over-year growth accelerate over 100 percent during the month of January, with revenue growth rising even further, according to Pacific Crest Securities. Mac sales were up 55% in December. Is this a trend?
Mac vs. PC Ads Getting Under Bill’s Skin
From this rant by Bill, it would appear those cute little Mac advertisements are starting to get under Bill’s skin.
“I don’t think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are. … I don’t know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don’t even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it.”
Bill, take a deep breath. You are still the richest man in the world and everybody still likes you[your money].
Check out the rest of the rant at Good Morning Silicon Valley.
The Age-Old Question: Mac or PC?
Businessweek columnist says that despite the new Windows Vista operating system, if you can afford it, buy a Mac. I whole heartedly agree!
The coming of Vista does not change my basic recommendation. Unless you have a compelling reason to run Windows or are very constrained by budget (since you can buy a usable PC for less than the cost of the least expensive Mac), the Mac is best choice for consumers.
Apple marketshare up 31%, browsershare up 45%…Everything Looking Up
Apple’s marketshare and browsershare have been marching upwards over the last several years, and this is no exception, a strong indication of Apple’s strength as a brand as its turning around of its historically very niche and marginal portion of the market.
Switch To a Mac breaks down a recent report showing that from November to November the Apple marketshare jumped 31%, a nice run. Another thing to note is that Macs started the year as 4.21% of the whole market, and right now are 5.39% of the market.
That’s still pretty niche, but to understand context, only a few years ago the Mac was 2 or 3% at most of the market.
Needham and Co.’s analyst Charles Wolf estimates that by 2016Apple will have 8.6% of the market. It’s a straight projection, however, remember that market adoption of products works in similar way to viral spreads, with exponential ‘tipping points’ where products ‘take off.’ It may be more of a case that Mac will either still be in 4-5% area, or it climbs significantly higher.
Some hints of this can be found in the Switch to a Mac’s analysis of Apple marketshare that shows very fast adoption rates of Intel processor Macs, the kinds of Macs that so-called ‘switchers’ are more likely to take a chance on due their ability to dual-boot Windows. Another demonstration of growing marketshare comes from a look at browser marketplace results, where the use of Mac browsers has jumped 45% to just a little over 4% of all browsers used.
Apple’s Big Mac
Record-breaking quarterly sales of the Mac are putting Apple into the running for a top computer-maker spot!
Sure, Apple Computer (AAPL) sold a lot of iPods in the September quarter. But unlike in past periods, when surging sales of the iconic digital-music player grabbed headlines, this time around, the Mac was the belle of the earnings ball.
In fact, Apple sold more of its Macintosh computers—1.61 million—than in any other quarter. Mac sales were clearly the high point of the quarter and the year, accounting for $2.2 billion, or 45%, of revenue. Apple had made a point to emphasize the Mac following the transition to using chips from Intel (INTC) from using chips made by IBM (IBM) and Freescale Semiconductor (FSL). Apple completed the switch when it released the MacPro earlier this month.
NICHE PLAYER NO MORE
“They delivered in spades,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says of Apple’s Mac sales. “It’s a sign that Apple has turned the corner from being a niche player to being a player that is starting to make a run at bigger players.”
Indeed, Apple came within spitting distance of overtaking Gateway (GTW) as the third-biggest U.S. computer maker, according to Gartner figures released on Oct. 18, the same day as Apple’s results. Last quarter, Apple sold a mere 38,000 fewer units than Gateway, which trails Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell (DELL).
And within Mac sales, portables were far and away the favored product of Mac buyers. Apple sold 986,000 of its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers, which accounted for $1.3 billion, or 27%, of revenue at an average price of $1,363 per unit during the period. Desktop sales, at 624,000 units, were slower, in part because the Mac Pro was the last Mac in Apple’s lineup to include an Intel chip, accounting for $869 million, or just less than 18%, of revenue. Desktop prices sold for an average price of $1,392.
